| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: Not from compunction certainly, but, as it were mechanically, I
proceeded to get the ladder in myself. Now a side-ladder of that
sort is a light affair and comes in easily, yet my vigorous tug,
which should have brought it flying on board, merely recoiled upon
my body in a totally unexpected jerk. What the devil! . . . I was
so astounded by the immovableness of that ladder that I remained
stock-still, trying to account for it to myself like that imbecile
mate of mine. In the end, of course, I put my head over the rail.
The side of the ship made an opaque belt of shadow on the darkling
glassy shimmer of the sea. But I saw at once something elongated
and pale floating very close to the ladder. Before I could form a
'Twixt Land & Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: it has neither parts nor magnitude. Thirdly, The conception of the same
is, first of all, identified with the one; and then by a further analysis
distinguished from, and even opposed to it. Fourthly, We may detect
notions, which have reappeared in modern philosophy, e.g. the bare
abstraction of undefined unity, answering to the Hegelian 'Seyn,' or the
identity of contradictions 'that which is older is also younger,' etc., or
the Kantian conception of an a priori synthetical proposition 'one is.'
II. In the first series of propositions the word 'is' is really the
copula; in the second, the verb of existence. As in the first series, the
negative consequence followed from one being affirmed to be equivalent to
the not many; so here the affirmative consequence is deduced from one being
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: Where he is already: for he is there against his will; and
wherever a man is against his will, that to him is a prision.
Thus Socrates was not in prision, since he was there with his own
consent.
XXXIII
Knowest thou what a speck thou art in comparison with the
Universe?---That is, with respect to the body; since with respect
to Reason, thou art not inferior to the Gods, nor less than they.
For the greatness of Reason is not measured by length or height,
but by the resolves of the mind. Place then thy happiness in that
wherein thou art equal to the Gods.
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
