| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: reconcilements of them in order to avoid chronological difficulties, such,
for example, as the conjecture of C.F. Hermann, that Glaucon and Adeimantus
are not the brothers but the uncles of Plato (cp. Apol.), or the fancy of
Stallbaum that Plato intentionally left anachronisms indicating the dates
at which some of his Dialogues were written.
The principal characters in the Republic are Cephalus, Polemarchus,
Thrasymachus, Socrates, Glaucon, and Adeimantus. Cephalus appears in the
introduction only, Polemarchus drops at the end of the first argument, and
Thrasymachus is reduced to silence at the close of the first book. The
main discussion is carried on by Socrates, Glaucon, and Adeimantus. Among
the company are Lysias (the orator) and Euthydemus, the sons of Cephalus
The Republic |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: There cannot be many who would buy such a pattern, and it must be
possible to find the factory where it was made. And I will also
write down here what I can see from my barred window. Far down
below me there is a rusty tin roof, it looks like as if it might
belong to a sort of shed. In front and to the right there are
windowless walls; to the left, at a little distance, I can see a
slender church spire, greenish in colour, probably covered with
copper, and before the church there are two poplar trees of
different heights.
"Another day has passed, a day of torturing fear! Am I really
insane? I know that I see queer things. This morning I looked
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: "Yes, I confess I am," said Newman, smiling.
Madame de Bellegarde looked at him with her cold fine eyes,
and he returned her gaze, reflecting that she was
a possible adversary and trying to take her measure.
Their eyes remained in contact for some moments.
Then Madame de Bellegarde looked away, and without smiling,
"I am very ambitious, too," she said.
Newman felt that taking her measure was not easy; she was a formidable,
inscrutable little woman. She resembled her daughter, and yet she
was utterly unlike her. The coloring in Madame de Cintre was the same,
and the high delicacy of her brow and nose was hereditary.
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