| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: may be those who guess the truth, but there are none who
know."
For a moment the king sat in thought. Then he rose and
commenced packing back and forth the length of the apart-
ment.
"Why should they ever know?" he said at last, halting
before the three men who had been standing watching him.
"For the sake of Lutha they should never know that an-
other than the true king sat upon the throne even for an
hour."
He was thinking of the comparison that might be drawn
The Mad King |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: contagious to such a degree that an individual readily sacrifices
his personal interest to the collective interest. This is an
aptitude very contrary to his nature, and of which a man is
scarcely capable, except when he makes part of a crowd.
A third cause, and by far the most important, determines in the
individuals of a crowd special characteristics which are quite
contrary at times to those presented by the isolated individual.
I allude to that suggestibility of which, moreover, the contagion
mentioned above is neither more nor less than an effect.
To understand this phenomenon it is necessary to bear in mind
certain recent physiological discoveries. We know to-day that by
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: cannot make out where it exists or among whom; according to you, the same
persons may sometimes have it, and sometimes not.
ALCIBIADES: But, indeed, Socrates, I do not know what I am saying; and I
have long been, unconsciously to myself, in a most disgraceful state.
SOCRATES: Nevertheless, cheer up; at fifty, if you had discovered your
deficiency, you would have been too old, and the time for taking care of
yourself would have passed away, but yours is just the age at which the
discovery should be made.
ALCIBIADES: And what should he do, Socrates, who would make the discovery?
SOCRATES: Answer questions, Alcibiades; and that is a process which, by
the grace of God, if I may put any faith in my oracle, will be very
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