| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: [33] {ek panton}. Cf. Thuc. i. 120, {osper kai en allois ek panton
protimontai (oi egemones)}, "as they (leaders) are first in
honour, they should be first in the fulfilment of their duties"
(Jowett).
[34] The commentators quote Libanius, "Apol." vol. iii. p. 39, {kai
dia touto ekalei men Eurulokhos o Kharistios, ekalei de Skopas k
Kranonios, oukh ekista lontes, upiskhnoumenoi}. Cf. Diog. Laert.
ii. 31, {Kharmidou oiketas auto didontos, in' ap' auton
prosodeuoito, oukh eileto}. Cf. id. 65, 74.
[35] See "Hell." II. ii. 10.
[36] {oikteirein eautous}. See L. Dind. ad loc. For an incident in
The Apology |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: and put back in time, and got safe into the roads; but the rest
pushing on in hopes to keep out to sea, and weather it, were by the
violence of the storm driven back, when they were too far embayed
to weather Wintertonness as above, and so were forced to run west,
everyone shifting for themselves as well as they could; some run
away for Lynn Deeps, but few of them (the night being so dark)
could find their way in there; some, but very few, rode it out at a
distance; the rest, being above 140 sail, were all driven on shore
and dashed to pieces, and very few of the people on board were
saved: at the very same unhappy juncture, a fleet of laden ships
were coming from the north, and being just crossing the same bay,
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted,
and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they
are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems
fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the
strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in
all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men
understand it. Can there not be a government in which the
majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but
conscience?--in which majorities decide only those questions
to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the
citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
