| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: not regard wealth as useful for virtue?
CRITIAS: True.
SOCRATES: And also the instruments by which wealth is procured?
CRITIAS: Certainly.
SOCRATES: Then you think that a man may gain wealth by bad and disgraceful
means, and, having obtained the aid of medicine which enables him to
acquire the power of hearing, may use that very faculty for the acquisition
of virtue?
CRITIAS: Yes, I do.
SOCRATES: But can that which is evil be useful for virtue?
CRITIAS: No.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: there is a greater deceiver or magician than the Egyptian priests, that is
to say, Plato himself, from the dominion of whose genius the critic and
natural philosopher of modern times are not wholly emancipated. Although
worthless in respect of any result which can be attained by them,
discussions like those of M. Martin (Timee) have an interest of their own,
and may be compared to the similar discussions regarding the Lost Tribes (2
Esdras), as showing how the chance word of some poet or philosopher has
given birth to endless religious or historical enquiries. (See
Introduction to the Timaeus.)
In contrasting the small Greek city numbering about twenty thousand
inhabitants with the barbaric greatness of the island of Atlantis, Plato
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: ship was made seaworthy, concluded to clear out. I
called Mahon to enjoy the spectacle. Rat after rat ap-
peared on our rail, took a last look over his shoulder,
and leaped with a hollow thud into the empty hulk.
We tried to count them, but soon lost the tale. Mahon
said: 'Well, well! don't talk to me about the intelligence
of rats. They ought to have left before, when we had
that narrow squeak from foundering. There you have
the proof how silly is the superstition about them. They
leave a good ship for an old rotten hulk, where there is
nothing to eat, too, the fools! . . . I don't believe they
Youth |
