| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: each object? These difficulties are but imperfectly answered by Socrates
in what follows.
We speak of a one and many, which is ever flowing in and out of all things,
concerning which a young man often runs wild in his first metaphysical
enthusiasm, talking about analysis and synthesis to his father and mother
and the neighbours, hardly sparing even his dog. This 'one in many' is a
revelation of the order of the world, which some Prometheus first made
known to our ancestors; and they, who were better men and nearer the gods
than we are, have handed it down to us. To know how to proceed by regular
steps from one to many, and from many to one, is just what makes the
difference between eristic and dialectic. And the right way of proceeding
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: not the creations of his fancy, but the beings themselves who visit him from
the regions of a remote world. This faith gives a solemnity to his reveries
that render them to me almost as imposing and interesting as truth.
Our conversations are not always confined to his own history and misfortunes.
On every point of general literature he displays unbounded knowledge
and a quick and piercing apprehension. His eloquence is forcible and touching;
nor can I hear him, when he relates a pathetic incident or endeavours to move
the passions of pity or love, without tears. What a glorious creature must
he have been in the days of his prosperity, when he is thus noble and godlike
in ruin! He seems to feel his own worth and the greatness of his fall.
"When younger," said he, "I believed myself destined for some
Frankenstein |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: true and certain, since the reason by which our choice has been
determined is itself possessed of these qualities. This principle was
sufficient thenceforward to rid me of all those repentings and pangs of
remorse that usually disturb the consciences of such feeble and uncertain
minds as, destitute of any clear and determinate principle of choice,
allow themselves one day to adopt a course of action as the best, which
they abandon the next, as the opposite.
My third maxim was to endeavor always to conquer myself rather than
fortune, and change my desires rather than the order of the world, and in
general, accustom myself to the persuasion that, except our own thoughts,
there is nothing absolutely in our power; so that when we have done our
Reason Discourse |
