| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: ALCIBIADES: Well, that is my opinion.
SOCRATES: But tell me, by Heaven:--you must see now the nature and
greatness of the difficulty in which you, like others, have your part. For
you change about in all directions, and never come to rest anywhere: what
you once most strongly inclined to suppose, you put aside again and quite
alter your mind. If the God to whose shrine you are going should appear at
this moment, and ask before you made your prayer, 'Whether you would desire
to have one of the things which we mentioned at first, or whether he should
leave you to make your own request:'--what in either case, think you, would
be the best way to take advantage of the opportunity?
ALCIBIADES: Indeed, Socrates, I could not answer you without
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: rare cases actually do more harm than good; for they encourage us to
pretend that all schoolmasters are like that. Of what use is it to us
that there are always somewhere two or three teachers of children
whose specific genius for their occupation triumphs over our tyrannous
system and even finds in it its opportunity? For that matter, it is
possible, if difficult, to find a solicitor, or even a judge, who has
some notion of what law means, a doctor with a glimmering of science,
an officer who understands duty and discipline, and a clergyman with
an inkling of religion, though there are nothing like enough of them
to go round. But even the few who, like Ibsen's Mrs Solness, have "a
genius for nursing the souls of little children" are like angels
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: reality to me, and being in the very midst of it as I was, made it
more striking than if I had looked on from a distant gallery.
LETTER: To W.D.B. and A.B.
LONDON, February 7, 1847
My dear Sons: . . . On Friday we dined with two bachelors, Mr.
Peabody and Mr. Coates, who are American bankers. Mr. Peabody is a
friend of Mr. Corcoran and was formerly a partner of Mr. Riggs in
Baltimore. Mr. Coates is of Boston. . . . They mustered up all the
Americans that could be found, and we dined with twenty-six of our
countrymen.
Monday Morning
|
