| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: umpire. But who is to be the umpire? rejoins Socrates; he would rather
suggest as a compromise that Protagoras shall ask and he will answer, and
that when Protagoras is tired of asking he himself will ask and Protagoras
shall answer. To this the latter yields a reluctant assent.
Protagoras selects as his thesis a poem of Simonides of Ceos, in which he
professes to find a contradiction. First the poet says,
'Hard is it to become good,'
and then reproaches Pittacus for having said, 'Hard is it to be good.' How
is this to be reconciled? Socrates, who is familiar with the poem, is
embarrassed at first, and invokes the aid of Prodicus, the countryman of
Simonides, but apparently only with the intention of flattering him into
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: There is a venerable church in the village, with pictures
attributed to Michael Wohlgemuth, and a chapel which is said to
mark the spot where St. Wolfgang, who had lost his axe far up the
mountain, found it, like Longfellow's arrow, in an oak, and "still
unbroke." The tree is gone, so it was impossible to verify the
story. But the saint's well is there, in a pavilion, with a bronze
image over it, and a profitable inscription to the effect that the
poorer pilgrims, "who have come unprovided with either money or
wine, should be jolly well contented to find the water so fine."
There is also a famous echo farther up the lake, which repeats six
syllables with accuracy. It is a strange coincidence that there
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: you would repeat the conversation.
APOLLODORUS: Well, the tale of love was on this wise:--But perhaps I had
better begin at the beginning, and endeavour to give you the exact words of
Aristodemus:
He said that he met Socrates fresh from the bath and sandalled; and as the
sight of the sandals was unusual, he asked him whither he was going that he
had been converted into such a beau:--
To a banquet at Agathon's, he replied, whose invitation to his sacrifice of
victory I refused yesterday, fearing a crowd, but promising that I would
come to-day instead; and so I have put on my finery, because he is such a
fine man. What say you to going with me unasked?
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