| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: 'One and Many.'
II. 1. The first of Plato's categories or elements is the infinite. This
is the negative of measure or limit; the unthinkable, the unknowable; of
which nothing can be affirmed; the mixture or chaos which preceded distinct
kinds in the creation of the world; the first vague impression of sense;
the more or less which refuses to be reduced to rule, having certain
affinities with evil, with pleasure, with ignorance, and which in the scale
of being is farthest removed from the beautiful and good. To a Greek of
the age of Plato, the idea of an infinite mind would have been an
absurdity. He would have insisted that 'the good is of the nature of the
finite,' and that the infinite is a mere negative, which is on the level of
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: intervals, singing of past, present, and future, responsive to the music of
the Sirens; Clotho from time to time guiding the outer circle with a touch
of her right hand; Atropos with her left hand touching and guiding the
inner circles; Lachesis in turn putting forth her hand from time to time to
guide both of them. On their arrival the pilgrims went to Lachesis, and
there was an interpreter who arranged them, and taking from her knees lots,
and samples of lives, got up into a pulpit and said: 'Mortal souls, hear
the words of Lachesis, the daughter of Necessity. A new period of mortal
life has begun, and you may choose what divinity you please; the
responsibility of choosing is with you--God is blameless.' After speaking
thus, he cast the lots among them and each one took up the lot which fell
The Republic |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: tame by inherited disposition, this is no reason why the others
should have their natures broken that they may be reduced to the
same level. Men are in the main alike, but they were made several
in order that they might be various. If a low use is to be
served, one man will do nearly or quite as well as another; if a
high one, individual excellence is to be regarded. Any man can
stop a hole to keep the wind away, but no other man could serve
so rare a use as the author of this illustration did. Confucius
says,--"The skins of the tiger and the leopard, when they are
tanned, are as the skins of the dog and the sheep tanned." But it
is not the part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than
Walking |
