| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: political and literary transition? Certainly not Plato, whose earlier
writings are separated from his later ones by as wide an interval of
philosophical speculation as that which separates his later writings from
Aristotle.
The dialogues which have been translated in the first Appendix, and which
appear to have the next claim to genuineness among the Platonic writings,
are the Lesser Hippias, the Menexenus or Funeral Oration, the First
Alcibiades. Of these, the Lesser Hippias and the Funeral Oration are cited
by Aristotle; the first in the Metaphysics, the latter in the Rhetoric.
Neither of them are expressly attributed to Plato, but in his citation of
both of them he seems to be referring to passages in the extant dialogues.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: presumptuous frenzy, was incapable; and he doubted not that their
march was only impeded by their ancient enemies, Glencoe,
Keppoch, and Glengarry; and perhaps M'Vourigh, with his
M'Phersons, might have assembled a force, which he knew must be
greatly inferior in numbers to his own, and whom, therefore, he
doubted not to disperse by force, or by terms of capitulation."
The spirit of Argyle's followers was high, breathing vengeance
for the disasters which their country had so lately undergone;
and the night passed in anxious hopes that the morning might dawn
upon their vengeance. The outposts of either army kept a careful
watch, and the soldiers of Argyle slept in the order of battle
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: stations and ornaments to their country.
When I disengaged myself, as above mentioned, from private business,
I flatter'd myself that, by the sufficient tho' moderate fortune
I had acquir'd, I had secured leisure during the rest of my life
for philosophical studies and amusements. I purchased all
Dr. Spence's apparatus, who had come from England to lecture here,
and I proceeded in my electrical experiments with great alacrity;
but the publick, now considering me as a man of leisure, laid hold
of me for their purposes, every part of our civil government,
and almost at the same time, imposing some duty upon me.
The governor put me into the commission of the peace; the corporation
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
