| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Theaetetus by Plato: still unanalyzed. At last we return to the doctrine attributed by Plato to
Protagoras, that the mind is only a succession of momentary perceptions.
At this point the modern philosophy of experience forms an alliance with
ancient scepticism.
The higher truths of philosophy and religion are very far removed from
sense. Admitting that, like all other knowledge, they are derived from
experience, and that experience is ultimately resolvable into facts which
come to us through the eye and ear, still their origin is a mere accident
which has nothing to do with their true nature. They are universal and
unseen; they belong to all times--past, present, and future. Any worthy
notion of mind or reason includes them. The proof of them is, 1st, their
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: angle, and seemed to penetrate far below. Then the departing
steamer went flashing across this bright realm with gorgeous
lustre; its red and green lights were doubled in the paler
waves, its four reflected chimneys chased each other among the
reflected masts. This jewelled wonder passing, a single
fishing-boat drifted silently by, with its one dark sail; and
then the moon and the anchored yacht were left alone.
Presently some of the luggage came from the wharf. Malbone
brought out presents for everybody; then all the family went to
Europe in photographs, and with some reluctance came back to
America for bed.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: the world--of rock--and very, very smooth. So smooth--so
beautifully smooth . . "He burst again into hysterical tears.
"Before you ask me any more, give me some food or I shall die!"
He expected dire punishments, but these blind people were
capable of toleration. They regarded his rebellion as but one more
proof of his general idiocy and inferiority, and after they had
whipped him they appointed him to do the simplest and heaviest work
they had for anyone to do, and he, seeing no other way of living,
did submissively what he was told.
He was ill for some days and they nursed him kindly. That
refined his submission. But they insisted on his lying in the
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