| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: inchoate, and fragmentary condition, the images so projected
are those of fragmentary intelligences ('spirits,'
gnomes, etc.--the age of magic); when the mind rises
to distinct consciousness of itself the reflections of it are
anthropomorphic 'gods'; when finally it reaches the
universal or cosmic state it perceives the presence of
a universal Being behind all phenomena--which Being is
indeed itself--"Himself to Himself." If you like you
may call the whole process by the name of Animism. It
is perfectly sensible throughout. The only proviso is
that you should also be sensible, and distinguish the different
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: Cope.
I have also derived much assistance from the great work of Mr. Grote, which
contains excellent analyses of the Dialogues, and is rich in original
thoughts and observations. I agree with him in rejecting as futile the
attempt of Schleiermacher and others to arrange the Dialogues of Plato into
a harmonious whole. Any such arrangement appears to me not only to be
unsupported by evidence, but to involve an anachronism in the history of
philosophy. There is a common spirit in the writings of Plato, but not a
unity of design in the whole, nor perhaps a perfect unity in any single
Dialogue. The hypothesis of a general plan which is worked out in the
successive Dialogues is an after-thought of the critics who have attributed
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: that, under cover of her charms, she escaped their scrutiny. This
enchanting veneer covered a careless heart; the opinion--common to
many young girls--that no one else dwelt in a sphere so lofty as to be
able to understand the merits of her soul; and a pride based no less
on her birth than on her beauty. In the absence of the overwhelming
sentiment which, sooner or later, works havoc in a woman's heart, she
spent her young ardor in an immoderate love of distinctions, and
expressed the deepest contempt for persons of inferior birth.
Supremely impertinent to all newly-created nobility, she made every
effort to get her parents recognized as equals by the most illustrious
families of the Saint-Germain quarter.
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