| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: by him--(do you imagine either of them to be given by nature?
MENO: Not I.)
SOCRATES: Then if they are not given by nature, neither are the good by
nature good?
MENO: Certainly not.
SOCRATES: And nature being excluded, then came the question whether virtue
is acquired by teaching?
MENO: Yes.
SOCRATES: If virtue was wisdom (or knowledge), then, as we thought, it was
taught?
MENO: Yes.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: were unheard-of. Monsieur des Grassins offered Grandet a pinch of
snuff, took one himself, shook off the grains as they fell on the
ribbon of the Legion of honor which was attached to the button-hole of
his blue surtout; then he looked at the Cruchots with an air that
seemed to say, "Parry that thrust if you can!" Madame des Grassins
cast her eyes on the blue vases which held the Cruchot bouquets,
looking at the enemy's gifts with the pretended interest of a
satirical woman. At this delicate juncture the Abbe Cruchot left the
company seated in a circle round the fire and joined Grandet at the
lower end of the hall. As the two men reached the embrasure of the
farthest window the priest said in the miser's ear: "Those people
Eugenie Grandet |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: the rock. These the boats loaded, after discharging the iron.
The object in carrying off these chips, besides ballasting the
vessel, was to get them permanently out of the way, as they
were apt to shift about from place to place with every gale of
wind; and it often required a considerable time to clear the
foundation a second time of this rubbish. The circumstance of
ballasting a ship at the Bell Rock afforded great
entertainment, especially to the sailors; and it was perhaps
with truth remarked that the SMEATON was the first vessel that
had ever taken on board ballast at the Bell Rock. Mr. Pool,
the commander of this vessel, afterwards acquainted the writer
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