| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: translation the word has been rendered in different places either
Temperance or Wisdom, as the connection seemed to require: for in the
philosophy of Plato (Greek) still retains an intellectual element (as
Socrates is also said to have identified (Greek) with (Greek): Xen. Mem.)
and is not yet relegated to the sphere of moral virtue, as in the
Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle.
The beautiful youth, Charmides, who is also the most temperate of human
beings, is asked by Socrates, 'What is Temperance?' He answers
characteristically, (1) 'Quietness.' 'But Temperance is a fine and noble
thing; and quietness in many or most cases is not so fine a thing as
quickness.' He tries again and says (2) that temperance is modesty. But
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: the ancient, viscous, and fecund darkness, and the orbit which it
describes when biting its tail the harmony of the planets, and the
intelligence of Eschmoun.
Salammbo's serpent had several times already refused the four live
sparrows which were offered to it at the full moon and at every new
moon. Its handsome skin, covered like the firmament with golden spots
upon a perfectly black ground, was now yellow, relaxed, wrinkled, and
too large for its body. A cottony mouldiness extended round its head;
and in the corners of its eyelids might be seen little red specks
which appeared to move. Salammbo would approach its silver-wire basket
from time to time, and would draw aside the purple curtains, the lotus
Salammbo |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: not take root in German hearts, as the Bible has done.
248. There are two kinds of geniuses: one which above all
engenders and seeks to engender, and another which willingly lets
itself be fructified and brings forth. And similarly, among the
gifted nations, there are those on whom the woman's problem of
pregnancy has devolved, and the secret task of forming, maturing,
and perfecting--the Greeks, for instance, were a nation of this
kind, and so are the French; and others which have to fructify
and become the cause of new modes of life--like the Jews, the
Romans, and, in all modesty be it asked: like the Germans?--
nations tortured and enraptured by unknown fevers and
Beyond Good and Evil |
