| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cratylus by Plato: The theory of language which is propounded in the Cratylus is in accordance
with the later phase of the philosophy of Plato, and would have been
regarded by him as in the main true. The dialogue is also a satire on the
philological fancies of the day. Socrates in pursuit of his vocation as a
detector of false knowledge, lights by accident on the truth. He is
guessing, he is dreaming; he has heard, as he says in the Phaedrus, from
another: no one is more surprised than himself at his own discoveries.
And yet some of his best remarks, as for example his view of the derivation
of Greek words from other languages, or of the permutations of letters, or
again, his observation that in speaking of the Gods we are only speaking of
our names of them, occur among these flights of humour.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: returned.
Mr. and Mrs. Moreen looked at each other; he could see that they
appreciated, as tending to their security, his superstition of
delicacy, and yet that there was a certain alarm in their relief.
"My dear fellow," Mr. Moreen demanded, "what use can you have,
leading the quiet life we all do, for such a lot of money?" - a
question to which Pemberton made no answer, occupied as he was in
noting that what passed in the mind of his patrons was something
like: "Oh then, if we've felt that the child, dear little angel,
has judged us and how he regards us, and we haven't been betrayed,
he must have guessed - and in short it's GENERAL!" an inference
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: next moment the rope sprang taut and yanked Sir
Sagramor out of the saddle! Great Scott, but there
was a sensation!
Unquestionably, the popular thing in this world is
novelty. These people had never seen anything of
that cowboy business before, and it carried them clear
off their feet with delight. From all around and every-
where, the shout went up:
"Encore! encore!"
I wondered where they got the word, but there was
no time to cipher on philological matters, because the
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |
