| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: phenomena which they represent, as well as by their relation to other
abstractions. If the knowledge of all were necessary to the knowledge of
any one of them, the mind would sink under the load of thought. Again, in
every process of reflection we seem to require a standing ground, and in
the attempt to obtain a complete analysis we lose all fixedness. If, for
example, the mind is viewed as the complex of ideas, or the difference
between things and persons denied, such an analysis may be justified from
the point of view of Hegel: but we shall find that in the attempt to
criticize thought we have lost the power of thinking, and, like the
Heracliteans of old, have no words in which our meaning can be expressed.
Such an analysis may be of value as a corrective of popular language or
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: Walter Scott's Kenilworth. Shakespeare he had returned to her. He
had bought Shakespeare for himself. "As soon as I got used to
readin' it," he had told her, "I knowed for certain that I liked
readin' for enjoyment"
But it was not of books that he had spoken much to-day. He had
not spoken at all. He had bade her listen to the meadow-lark,
when its song fell upon the silence like beaded drops of music.
He had showed her where a covey of young willow-grouse were
hiding as their horses passed. And then, without warning, as they
sat by the spring, he had spoken potently of his love.
She did not interrupt him. She waited until he was wholly
The Virginian |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Koran: to those who have associated others with ourself, 'Where are your
associates whom ye did pretend?' Then they will have no excuse but
to say, 'By God our Lord, we did not associate (others with thee)!'
See how they lie against themselves, and how what they did forge
deserts them! And they are some who listen unto thee, but we have
placed a veil upon their hearts lest they should understand it, and in
their ears is dulness of hearing; and though they saw each sign they
would not believe therein; until when they come to thee to wrangle
with thee, the unbelievers say, 'These are but old folks' tales.'
They forbid it and they avoid it;- but they destroy none but
themselves; yet they do not perceive.
The Koran |
