| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: also: Do not they, too, know wise things? But suppose a person were to
ask us: In what are the painters wise? We should answer: In what relates
to the making of likenesses, and similarly of other things. And if he were
further to ask: What is the wisdom of the Sophist, and what is the
manufacture over which he presides?--how should we answer him?
How should we answer him, Socrates? What other answer could there be but
that he presides over the art which makes men eloquent?
Yes, I replied, that is very likely true, but not enough; for in the answer
a further question is involved: Of what does the Sophist make a man talk
eloquently? The player on the lyre may be supposed to make a man talk
eloquently about that which he makes him understand, that is about playing
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: being charmed with such a lovely spot, so Mercury stood still
and looked at it; but when he had admired it sufficiently he
went inside the cave.
Calypso knew him at once--for the gods all know each other, no
matter how far they live from one another--but Ulysses was not
within; he was on the sea-shore as usual, looking out upon the
barren ocean with tears in his eyes, groaning and breaking his
heart for sorrow. Calypso gave Mercury a seat and said: "Why
have you come to see me, Mercury--honoured, and ever
welcome--for you do not visit me often? Say what you want; I
will do it for you at once if I can, and if it can be done at
The Odyssey |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: guilt. Altogether, it was a good hour for me when the dusk began
to fall in earnest on the streets of Edinburgh, and the voice of an
early watchman bade me set forth.
I reached the neighbourhood of the cottage before seven; and as I
breasted the steep ascent which leads to the garden wall, I was
struck with surprise to hear a dog. Dogs I had heard before, but
only from the hamlet on the hillside above. Now, this dog was in
the garden itself, where it roared aloud in paroxysms of fury, and
I could hear it leaping and straining on the chain. I waited some
while, until the brute's fit of passion had roared itself out.
Then, with the utmost precaution, I drew near again; and finally
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