| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: fiery nature are clearly distinguished and have names. First, there is
wine, which warms the soul as well as the body: secondly, there is the
oily nature, which is smooth and divides the visual ray, and for this
reason is bright and shining and of a glistening appearance, including
pitch, the juice of the castor berry, oil itself, and other things of a
like kind: thirdly, there is the class of substances which expand the
contracted parts of the mouth, until they return to their natural state,
and by reason of this property create sweetness;--these are included under
the general name of honey: and, lastly, there is a frothy nature, which
differs from all juices, having a burning quality which dissolves the
flesh; it is called opos (a vegetable acid).
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: of pupils; or they may have been the writings of some contemporary
transferred by accident to the more celebrated name of Plato, or of some
Platonist in the next generation who aspired to imitate his master. Not
that on grounds either of language or philosophy we should lightly reject
them. Some difference of style, or inferiority of execution, or
inconsistency of thought, can hardly be considered decisive of their
spurious character. For who always does justice to himself, or who writes
with equal care at all times? Certainly not Plato, who exhibits the
greatest differences in dramatic power, in the formation of sentences, and
in the use of words, if his earlier writings are compared with his later
ones, say the Protagoras or Phaedrus with the Laws. Or who can be expected
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: watched him as he walked down the street.
Here was a formidable man who disdained the strength of a
world full of fists. Here was one who had contempt for brass-
clothed power; one whose knuckles could defiantly ring against the
granite of law. He was a knight.
The two men went from under the glimmering street-lamp and
passed into shadows.
Turning, Maggie contemplated the dark, dust-stained walls, and
the scant and crude furniture of her home. A clock, in a
splintered and battered oblong box of varnished wood, she suddenly
regarded as an abomination. She noted that it ticked raspingly.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
