| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: that, he will ask, because the good was worthy or not worthy of conquering
the evil'? And in answer to that we shall clearly reply, Because it was
not worthy; for if it had been worthy, then he who, as we say, was overcome
by pleasure, would not have been wrong. 'But how,' he will reply, 'can the
good be unworthy of the evil, or the evil of the good'? Is not the real
explanation that they are out of proportion to one another, either as
greater and smaller, or more and fewer? This we cannot deny. And when you
speak of being overcome--'what do you mean,' he will say, 'but that you
choose the greater evil in exchange for the lesser good?' Admitted. And
now substitute the names of pleasure and pain for good and evil, and say,
not as before, that a man does what is evil knowingly, but that he does
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: logic and experience have already belied the assertion of those
who say with Beccaria that, ``for the appreciation of facts,
ordinary intelligence is better than science, common sense better
than the highest mental faculties, and ordinary training better
than scientific.''
On the contrary, a criminal trial is not only concerned with the
direct perception of facts, but also and especially with their
critical reconstruction and psychological appreciation. In civil
law the fact is really accessory, and both sides may be agreed in
its exposition, whilst disputing about the application of the law
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Newport should have stood, but where only weeds and great
trees and tangled wild wood rioted, and not a single manmade
thing was visible to the eye.
Before landing, I had the men substitute soft bullets for
the steel-jacketed projectiles with which their belts and
magazines were filled. Thus equipped, we felt upon more
even terms with the tigers, but there was no sign of the
tigers, and I decided that they must be confined to the
mainland.
After eating, we set out in search of fuel, leaving Taylor
to guard the launch. For some reason I could not trust
Lost Continent |
