| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: with--he who knows nothing about a subject, and, what is
extremely rare, knows that he knows nothing, or he who really
knows something about it, but thinks that he knows all?
My desire for knowledge is intermittent, but my desire to bathe
my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and
constant. The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but
Sympathy with Intelligence. I do not know that this higher
knowledge amounts to anything more definite than a novel and
grand surprise on a sudden revelation of the insufficiency of all
that we called Knowledge before--a discovery that there are more
things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy.
Walking |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: must be understood by the common sense (sensus communis) in which these
ideas are received, by the memory which retains them, by the fantasy which
can change them in various ways, and out of them compose new ideas, and
which, by the same means, distributing the animal spirits through the
muscles, can cause the members of such a body to move in as many different
ways, and in a manner as suited, whether to the objects that are presented
to its senses or to its internal affections, as can take place in our own
case apart from the guidance of the will. Nor will this appear at all
strange to those who are acquainted with the variety of movements
performed by the different automata, or moving machines fabricated by
human industry, and that with help of but few pieces compared with the
Reason Discourse |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: woman may ever be said to be in safety from the determined
Perseverance of disagreeable Lovers and the cruel Persecutions of
obstinate Fathers, surely it must be at such a time of Life.
Isabel
LETTER 2nd
LAURA to ISABEL
Altho' I cannot agree with you in supposing that I shall never
again be exposed to Misfortunes as unmerited as those I have
already experienced, yet to avoid the imputation of Obstinacy or
ill-nature, I will gratify the curiosity of your daughter; and
may the fortitude with which I have suffered the many afflictions
Love and Friendship |
