| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: retailers,--seeing, too, that the class of supreme rulers, or rulers for
themselves, is almost nameless--shall we make a word following the same
analogy, and refer kings to a supreme or ruling-for-self science, leaving
the rest to receive a name from some one else? For we are seeking the
ruler; and our enquiry is not concerned with him who is not a ruler.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Very good.
STRANGER: Thus a very fair distinction has been attained between the man
who gives his own commands, and him who gives another's. And now let us
see if the supreme power allows of any further division.
YOUNG SOCRATES: By all means.
STRANGER: I think that it does; and please to assist me in making the
 Statesman |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: unfavourable.
This alteration did not escape Varney. Then the meal was
finished, the cloth removed, and they were left to their private
discourse--"Thou art gay as a goldfinch, Anthony," said Varney,
looking at his host; "methinks, thou wilt whistle a jig anon.
But I crave your pardon, that would secure your ejection from the
congregation of the zealous botchers, the pure-hearted weavers,
and the sanctified bakers of Abingdon, who let their ovens cool
while their brains get heated."
"To answer you in the spirit, Master Varney," said Foster, "were
--excuse the parable--to fling sacred and precious things before
 Kenilworth |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: tiara of the Pope. How should they carry its burden? They are as
a clown whose heart is broken. They are as a priest whose soul is
not yet born. Let all who love Beauty pity them. Though they
themselves love not Beauty, yet let them pity themselves. Who
taught them the trick of tyranny?
There are many other things that one might point out. One might
point out how the Renaissance was great, because it sought to solve
no social problem, and busied itself not about such things, but
suffered the individual to develop freely, beautifully, and
naturally, and so had great and individual artists, and great and
individual men. One might point out how Louis XIV., by creating
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