| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: power to do all these things which I was just naming?
I agree.
Then, after a pause, in which he seemed to be lost in the contemplation of
something great, he said: Tell me, Socrates, have you an ancestral Zeus?
Here, anticipating the final move, like a person caught in a net, who gives
a desperate twist that he may get away, I said: No, Dionysodorus, I have
not.
What a miserable man you must be then, he said; you are not an Athenian at
all if you have no ancestral gods or temples, or any other mark of
gentility.
Nay, Dionysodorus, I said, do not be rough; good words, if you please; in
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: box. If you will follow my advice, we will leave it, and at once."
Mme. d'Espard's expression was insolent enough; Lucien was at a loss
to account for her change of countenance. He thought that his
waistcoat was in bad taste, which was true; and that his coat looked
like a caricature of the fashion, which was likewise true. He
discerned, in bitterness of soul, that he must put himself in the
hands of an expert tailor, and vowed that he would go the very next
morning to the most celebrated artist in Paris. On Monday he would
hold his own with the men in the Marquise's house.
Yet, lost in thought though he was, he saw the third act to an end,
and, with his eyes fixed on the gorgeous scene upon the stage, dreamed
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: returns and becomes nothing. This is called the Form of the Formless,
and the Semblance of the Invisible; this is called the Fleeting and
Indeterminable.
3. We meet it and do not see its Front; we follow it, and do not see
its Back. When we can lay hold of the Tao of old to direct the things
of the present day, and are able to know it as it was of old in the
beginning, this is called (unwinding) the clue of Tao.
15. 1. The skilful masters (of the Tao) in old times, with a subtle
and exquisite penetration, comprehended its mysteries, and were deep
(also) so as to elude men's knowledge. As they were thus beyond men's
knowledge, I will make an effort to describe of what sort they
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