| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: words--'I should like to ask our Eleatic friend what his countrymen think
of them; do they regard them as one, or three?'
The Stranger has been already asked the same question by Theodorus and
Theaetetus; and he at once replies that they are thought to be three; but
to explain the difference fully would take time. He is pressed to give
this fuller explanation, either in the form of a speech or of question and
answer. He prefers the latter, and chooses as his respondent Theaetetus,
whom he already knows, and who is recommended to him by Socrates.
We are agreed, he says, about the name Sophist, but we may not be equally
agreed about his nature. Great subjects should be approached through
familiar examples, and, considering that he is a creature not easily
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: always a Woman" is a Decree of Nature; and the very Laws of Evolution
seem suspended in her disfavour. Yet at least we can
admire the wise Prearrangement which has ordained that,
as they have no hopes, so they shall have no memory to recall,
and no forethought to anticipate, the miseries and humiliations
which are at once a necessity of their existence and the basis of
the constitution of Flatland.
Section 5. Of our Methods of Recognizing one another
You, who are blessed with shade as well as light, you,
who are gifted with two eyes, endowed with a knowledge of perspective,
and charmed with the enjoyment of various colours, you,
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu: We bring thee our thanks and our garlands for tribute,
The wealth of our valleys, new-garnered and ripe;
O sender of rain and the dewfall, we hail thee,
We praise thee, Varuna, with cymbal and pipe.
Women's Voices
Queen of the gourd-flower, queen of the harvest,
Sweet and omnipotent mother, O Earth!
Thine is the plentiful bosom that feeds us,
Thine is the womb where our riches have birth.
We bring thee our love and our garlands for tribute,
With gifts of thy opulent giving we come;
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