| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: such length that most of his hearers forget the question at issue (not that
Socrates is likely to forget--I will be bound for that, although he may
pretend in fun that he has a bad memory). And Socrates appears to me to be
more in the right than Protagoras; that is my view, and every man ought to
say what he thinks.
When Alcibiades had done speaking, some one--Critias, I believe--went on to
say: O Prodicus and Hippias, Callias appears to me to be a partisan of
Protagoras: and this led Alcibiades, who loves opposition, to take the
other side. But we should not be partisans either of Socrates or of
Protagoras; let us rather unite in entreating both of them not to break up
the discussion.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: boughs of tamarisk that they might not miss it as they came back
through the' flying hours of darkness. The two then went onwards
amid the fallen armour and the blood, and came presently to the
company of Thracian soldiers, who were sleeping, tired out with
their day's toil; their goodly armour was lying on the ground
beside them all orderly in three rows, and each man had his yoke
of horses beside him. Rhesus was sleeping in the middle, and hard
by him his horses were made fast to the topmost rim of his
chariot. Ulysses from some way off saw him and said, "This,
Diomed, is the man, and these are the horses about which Dolon
whom we killed told us. Do your very utmost; dally not about your
The Iliad |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: was; and thither had I gone, but for Mabel Parkins,
who---''
``Ay, dead was Athelstane,'' said the old man,
shaking his head, ``and the more pity it was, for
the old Saxon blood---''
``But, your story, my masters---your story,'' said
the Minstrel, somewhat impatiently.
``Ay, ay---construe us the story,'' said a burly
Friar, who stood beside them, leaning on a pole
that exhibited an appearance between a pilgrim's
staff and a quarter-staff, and probably acted as either
Ivanhoe |
