| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain: CHAPTER IV
Student Life
[The Laborious Beer King]
The summer semester was in full tide; consequently the
most frequent figure in and about Heidelberg was
the student. Most of the students were Germans,
of course, but the representatives of foreign lands
were very numerous. They hailed from every corner
of the globe--for instruction is cheap in Heidelberg,
and so is living, too. The Anglo-American Club,
composed of British and American students, had twenty-five
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: friend and never evil.
You mean that the return of a deposit of gold which is to the injury of the
receiver, if the two parties are friends, is not the repayment of a debt,--
that is what you would imagine him to say?
Yes.
And are enemies also to receive what we owe to them?
To be sure, he said, they are to receive what we owe them, and an enemy, as
I take it, owes to an enemy that which is due or proper to him--that is to
say, evil.
Simonides, then, after the manner of poets, would seem to have spoken
darkly of the nature of justice; for he really meant to say that justice is
The Republic |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: one and not the other?
I suppose, he said, because I understand the one, and not the other.
Yes, my dear youth, I said, the reason is not any deficiency of years, but
a deficiency of knowledge; and whenever your father thinks that you are
wiser than he is, he will instantly commit himself and his possessions to
you.
I think so.
Aye, I said; and about your neighbour, too, does not the same rule hold as
about your father? If he is satisfied that you know more of housekeeping
than he does, will he continue to administer his affairs himself, or will
he commit them to you?
Lysis |
