| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: SOCRATES: But you do say that he who is a good rhapsode is also a good
general.
ION: Certainly.
SOCRATES: And you are the best of Hellenic rhapsodes?
ION: Far the best, Socrates.
SOCRATES: And are you the best general, Ion?
ION: To be sure, Socrates; and Homer was my master.
SOCRATES: But then, Ion, what in the name of goodness can be the reason
why you, who are the best of generals as well as the best of rhapsodes in
all Hellas, go about as a rhapsode when you might be a general? Do you
think that the Hellenes want a rhapsode with his golden crown, and do not
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: 'OUI,' added the CURE, sententiously nodding; 'COMME ANCIEN
MILITAIRE - ET COMME PRETRE.'
At this moment, whilst I was somewhat embarrassed how to answer, in
came one of the monks, a little brown fellow, as lively as a grig,
and with an Italian accent, who threw himself at once into the
contention, but in a milder and more persuasive vein, as befitted
one of these pleasant brethren. Look at HIM, he said. The rule
was very hard; he would have dearly liked to stay in his own
country, Italy - it was well known how beautiful it was, the
beautiful Italy; but then there were no Trappists in Italy; and he
had a soul to save; and here he was.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: knew 'how to pursue, and fly quickly hither and thither'; and he passes an
encomium on Aeneas himself, as having a knowledge of fear or flight, and
calls him 'an author of fear or flight.'
LACHES: Yes, Socrates, and there Homer is right: for he was speaking of
chariots, as you were speaking of the Scythian cavalry, who have that way
of fighting; but the heavy-armed Greek fights, as I say, remaining in his
rank.
SOCRATES: And yet, Laches, you must except the Lacedaemonians at Plataea,
who, when they came upon the light shields of the Persians, are said not to
have been willing to stand and fight, and to have fled; but when the ranks
of the Persians were broken, they turned upon them like cavalry, and won
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