| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: all mental improvement in after ages. It was the pushing aside of the old,
the revelation of the new. But each one of the company of abstractions, if
we may speak in the metaphorical language of Plato, became in turn the
tyrant of the mind, the dominant idea, which would allow no other to have a
share in the throne. This is especially true of the Eleatic philosophy:
while the absoluteness of Being was asserted in every form of language, the
sensible world and all the phenomena of experience were comprehended under
Not-being. Nor was any difficulty or perplexity thus created, so long as
the mind, lost in the contemplation of Being, asked no more questions, and
never thought of applying the categories of Being or Not-being to mind or
opinion or practical life.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: But surely, my man, when the voyage began,
You might have suggested it then?
"It's excessively awkward to mention it now--
As I think I've already remarked."
And the man they called "Hi!" replied, with a sigh,
"I informed you the day we embarked.
"You may charge me with murder--or want of sense--
(We are all of us weak at times):
But the slightest approach to a false pretense
Was never among my crimes!
"I said it in Hebrew--I said it in Dutch--
The Hunting of the Snark |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: was kept up by some malcontents among the Abyssin nobility, who,
provoked at the conversion of their master, were plotting a revolt,
entertained an inveterate hatred against the Portuguese for the
death of his grandfather, who had been killed many years before,
which he swore the blood of the Jesuits should repay. So after they
had languished for some time in prison their heads were struck off.
A fate which had been likewise our own, had not God reserved us for
longer labours!
Having provided everything necessary for our journey, such as
Arabian habits, and red caps, calicoes, and other trifles to make
presents of to the inhabitants, and taking leave of our friends, as
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