| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: Marthe, "come, wife, put on your shoes, take your coat, and let us be
off! No questions--I go with you."
For the last three quarters of an hour the man's demeanor and glance
were of despotic authority, all-powerful, irresistible, drawn from the
same mysterious source from which great generals on fields of battle
who inflame an army, great orators inspiring vast audiences, and (it
must be said) great criminals perpetrating bold crimes derive their
inspiration. At such times invincible influence seems to exhale from
the head and issue from the tongue; the gesture even can inject the
will of the one man into others. The three women knew that some
dreadful crisis was at hand; without warning of its nature they felt
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: rather than experience itself, with which the mind is filled. It is a
symbol of knowledge rather than the reality which is vouchsafed to us. The
Organon of Bacon is not much nearer to actual facts than the Organon of
Aristotle or the Platonic idea of good. Many of the old rags and ribbons
which defaced the garment of philosophy have been stripped off, but some of
them still adhere. A crude conception of the ideas of Plato survives in
the 'forms' of Bacon. And on the other hand, there are many passages of
Plato in which the importance of the investigation of facts is as much
insisted upon as by Bacon. Both are almost equally superior to the
illusions of language, and are constantly crying out against them, as
against other idols.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: store on the finest house in the world as on a leather coat, because he
could use the one and not the other. Or again, the Carthaginian coinage is
not wealth in our eyes, for we could not employ it, as we can silver, to
procure what we need, and therefore it is of no use to us.
ERASISTRATUS: True.
SOCRATES: What is useful to us, then, is wealth, and what is useless to us
is not wealth?
But how do you mean, Socrates? said Eryxias, interrupting. Do we not
employ in our intercourse with one another speech and violence (?) and
various other things? These are useful and yet they are not wealth.
SOCRATES: Clearly we have not yet answered the question, What is wealth?
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