| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: the king. Wherefore certain men, looking enviously on his free
converse with the king, studied how they might slander him; and
this was all their thought. On a day, when the king went forth
a-hunting with his bodyguard, as was his wont, this good man was
of the hunting party. While he was walking alone, by divine
providence, as I believe, he found a man in a covert, cast to the
ground, his foot grievously crushed by a wild-beast. Seeing him
passing by, the wounded man importuned him not to go his way, but
to pity his misfortune, and take him to his own home, adding
thereto: "I hope that I shall not be found unprofitable, nor
altogether useless unto thee." Our nobleman said unto him, "For
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: incapable individuals, whose existence is only rendered possible
through the high organization of civilized crowds. Few men realize
that their life, the very essence of their character, their
capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their
belief in the safety of their surroundings. The courage, the
composure, the confidence; the emotions and principles; every great
and every insignificant thought belongs not to the individual but to
the crowd: to the crowd that believes blindly in the irresistible
force of its institutions and of its morals, in the power of its
police and of its opinion. But the contact with pure unmitigated
savagery, with primitive nature and primitive man, brings sudden and
Tales of Unrest |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: observation: "It would be sufficiently extraordinary if the keeper of
a herd of cattle[20] who was continually thinning and impoverishing
his cattle did not admit himself to be a sorry sort of herdsman, but
that a ruler of the state who was continually thinning and
impoverishing the citizens should neither be ashamed nor admit himself
to be a sorry sort of ruler was more extraordinary still." The remark
being reported to the government, Socrates was summoned by Critias and
Charicles, who proceeded to point out the law and forbade him to
converse with the young. "Was it open to him," Socrates inquired of
the speaker, "in case he failed to understand their commands in any
point, to ask for an explanation?"
The Memorabilia |
