| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: would entail upon him. He begins with popularity, and in fair weather
sails gallantly along. But unpopularity soon follows him. For men expect
their leaders to be better and wiser than themselves: to be their guides
in danger, their saviours in extremity; they do not really desire them to
obey all the ignorant impulses of the popular mind; and if they fail them
in a crisis they are disappointed. Then, as Socrates says, the cry of
ingratitude is heard, which is most unreasonable; for the people, who have
been taught no better, have done what might be expected of them, and their
statesmen have received justice at their hands.
The true statesman is aware that he must adapt himself to times and
circumstances. He must have allies if he is to fight against the world; he
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: followed the breaking off of the exclamation. There was nothing
more. No one dared do anything, and no one knew till morning whence
the call came. Then those who had heard it called everyone on
the line, and found that only the Fryes did not reply. The truth
appeared an hour later, when a hastily assembled group of armed
men trudged out to the Frye place at the head of the glen. It
was horrible, yet hardly a surprise. There were more swaths and
monstrous prints, but there was no longer any house. It had caved
in like an egg-shell, and amongst the ruins nothing living or
dead could be discovered. Only a stench and a tarry stickiness.
The Elmer Fryes had been erased from Dunwich.
The Dunwich Horror |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: getting rid of some evil, such as disease, which is not essential but only
accidental to it (for if the evil were essential the body would cease to be
indifferent, and would become evil)--in such a case the indifferent becomes
a friend of the good for the sake of getting rid of the evil. In this
intermediate 'indifferent' position the philosopher or lover of wisdom
stands: he is not wise, and yet not unwise, but he has ignorance
accidentally clinging to him, and he yearns for wisdom as the cure of the
evil. (Symp.)
After this explanation has been received with triumphant accord, a fresh
dissatisfaction begins to steal over the mind of Socrates: Must not
friendship be for the sake of some ulterior end? and what can that final
Lysis |
