| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: and he has his own little tape-line with which to measure them. His
glance shoots over all things and penetrates none. He occupies himself
with a great deal, yet nothing occupies him.
Jester and jolly fellow, he keeps on good terms with all political
opinions, and is patriotic to the bottom of his soul. A capital mimic,
he knows how to put on, turn and turn about, the smiles of persuasion,
satisfaction, and good-nature, or drop them for the normal expression
of his natural man. He is compelled to be an observer of a certain
sort in the interests of his trade. He must probe men with a glance
and guess their habits, wants, and above all their solvency. To
economize time he must come to quick decisions as to his chances of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Cromwell by William Shakespeare: or jolting in my guts, in a little boat too: here we were
scarce four mile in the great green water, but I--thinking
to go to my afternoon's urgings, as twas my manner at
home--but I felt a kind of rising in my guts. At last one
a the Sailors spying of me, be a good cheer, says he, set
down thy victuals, and up with it, thou hast nothing but an
Eel in thy belly. Well toot went I, to my victuals went the
Sailors, and thinking me to be a man of better experience
than any in the ship, asked me what Wood the ship was
made of: they all swore I told them as right as if I had
been acquainted with the Carpenter that made it. At last
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: they may be increased by bad education and bad laws, which implies that
they may be decreased by good education and good laws. He appears to have
an inkling of the truth that to the higher nature of man evil is
involuntary. This is mixed up with the view which, while apparently
agreeing with it, is in reality the opposite of it, that vice is due to
physical causes. In the Timaeus, as well as in the Laws, he also regards
vices and crimes as simply involuntary; they are diseases analogous to the
diseases of the body, and arising out of the same causes. If we draw
together the opposite poles of Plato's system, we find that, like Spinoza,
he combines idealism with fatalism.
The soul of man is divided by him into three parts, answering roughly to
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