| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Anabasis by Xenophon: The Anabasis is his story of the march to Persia
to aid Cyrus, who enlisted Greek help to try and
take the throne from Artaxerxes, and the ensuing
return of the Greeks, in which Xenophon played a
leading role. This occurred between 401 B.C. and
March 399 B.C.
PREPARER'S NOTE
This was typed from Dakyns' series, "The Works of Xenophon," a
four-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon's works (though
there is doubt about some of these) is:
Work Number of books
 Anabasis |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: round and round as fast as he could, in the middle of the room,
thinking there was somebody behind him, when the same voice struck
again on his ear. It was singing now, very merrily, "Lala-lira-
la"--no words, only a soft, running, effervescent melody, something
like that of a kettle on the boil. Gluck looked out of the window;
no, it was certainly in the house. Upstairs and downstairs; no, it
was certainly in that very room, coming in quicker time and clearer
notes every moment: "Lala-lira-la." All at once it struck Gluck
that it sounded louder near the furnace. He ran to the opening and
looked in. Yes, he saw right; it seemed to be coming not only out
of the furnace but out of the pot. He uncovered it, and ran back in
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: skilful in many arts, and does not possess the knowledge of the best, but
is under some other guidance, will make, as he deserves, a sorry voyage:--
he will, I believe, hurry through the brief space of human life, pilotless
in mid-ocean, and the words will apply to him in which the poet blamed his
enemy:--
'...Full many a thing he knew;
But knew them all badly.' (A fragment from the pseudo-Homeric poem,
'Margites.')
ALCIBIADES: How in the world, Socrates, do the words of the poet apply to
him? They seem to me to have no bearing on the point whatever.
SOCRATES: Quite the contrary, my sweet friend: only the poet is talking
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