| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: the world resides precisely in the fact that, being born of
affective and mystic elements, they are neither created nor
directed by reason.
Political or religious beliefs have a common origin and obey the
same laws. They are formed not with the aid of reason, but more
often contrary to all reason. Buddhism, Islamism, the
Reformation, Jacobinism, Socialism, &c., seem very different
forms of thought. Yet they have identical affective and mystic
bases, and obey a logic that has no affinity with rational logic.
Political revolutions may result from beliefs established in the
minds of men, but many other causes produce them. The word
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: And will not the temperate man do what is proper, both in relation to the
gods and to men;--for he would not be temperate if he did not? Certainly
he will do what is proper. In his relation to other men he will do what is
just; and in his relation to the gods he will do what is holy; and he who
does what is just and holy must be just and holy? Very true. And must he
not be courageous? for the duty of a temperate man is not to follow or to
avoid what he ought not, but what he ought, whether things or men or
pleasures or pains, and patiently to endure when he ought; and therefore,
Callicles, the temperate man, being, as we have described, also just and
courageous and holy, cannot be other than a perfectly good man, nor can the
good man do otherwise than well and perfectly whatever he does; and he who
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: and leave me without a penny to get the new boilers for
her. You gloat over that idea--don't you? I do be-
lieve you sit here gloating. It's as if I had sold my
soul for five hundred pounds to be everlastingly damned
in the end. . . ."
He paused, without apparent exasperation, then con-
tinued evenly--
". . . With the boilers worn out and the survey hang-
ing over my head, Captain Whalley-- Captain
Whalley, I say, what do you do with your money? You
must have stacks of money somewhere--a man like you
End of the Tether |
