| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: pleasure be of all things most absolutely like pleasure,--that is, like
itself?
SOCRATES: Yes, my good friend, just as colour is like colour;--in so far
as colours are colours, there is no difference between them; and yet we all
know that black is not only unlike, but even absolutely opposed to white:
or again, as figure is like figure, for all figures are comprehended under
one class; and yet particular figures may be absolutely opposed to one
another, and there is an infinite diversity of them. And we might find
similar examples in many other things; therefore do not rely upon this
argument, which would go to prove the unity of the most extreme opposites.
And I suspect that we shall find a similar opposition among pleasures.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: me anon, but to end my days wasted by disease, or by old age, on which
a confluent stream of evil things most alien to joyousness
converges."[18]
[16] {te tou logou episkepsei}. Cf. Plat. "Rep." 456 C.
[17] Or, if {emin}, transl. "we all were for thinking that the main
thing was."
[18] Or, "that sink into which a confluent stream of evil humours
discharge most incompatible with gaiety of mind." Schneid. conj.
{eremon} sc. {geras}.
"No," he added, "God knows I shall display no ardent zeal to bring
that about.[19] On the contrary, if by proclaiming all the blessings
The Apology |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: and my foolish pride kept me from making any advances.
I verily believe that a man's way with women is in inverse
ratio to his prowess among men. The weakling and the saphead
have often great ability to charm the fair sex, while the
fighting man who can face a thousand real dangers unafraid,
sits hiding in the shadows like some frightened child.
Just thirty days after my advent upon Barsoom we entered
the ancient city of Thark, from whose long-forgotten
people this horde of green men have stolen even their name.
The hordes of Thark number some thirty thousand souls,
and are divided into twenty-five communities. Each community
|
