| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: the prosecutor."
But please explain one other thing, Ischomachus (I answered). Do you
put defence and accusation into formal language?[21]
[21] "Does your practice include the art of translating into words
your sentiments?" Cf. "Mem." I. ii. 52.
Isch. "Formal language," say you, Socrates? The fact is, I never cease
to practise speaking; and on this wise: Some member of my household
has some charge to bring, or some defence to make,[22] against some
other. I have to listen and examine. I must try to sift the truth. Or
there is some one whom I have to blame or praise before my friends, or
I must arbitrate between some close connections and endeavour to
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Theaetetus by Plato: Protagoras?
THEODORUS: What is it?
SOCRATES: I am charmed with his doctrine, that what appears is to each
one, but I wonder that he did not begin his book on Truth with a
declaration that a pig or a dog-faced baboon, or some other yet stranger
monster which has sensation, is the measure of all things; then he might
have shown a magnificent contempt for our opinion of him by informing us at
the outset that while we were reverencing him like a God for his wisdom he
was no better than a tadpole, not to speak of his fellow-men--would not
this have produced an overpowering effect? For if truth is only sensation,
and no man can discern another's feelings better than he, or has any
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: fixed upon them with an invisible glance. Finally, the deputies
returned abashed to their constituents, pronouncing the matter
too weighty to be handled, except by a council of the churches,
if, indeed, it might not require a general synod.
But there was one person in the village unappalled by the awe
with which the black veil had impressed all beside herself. When
the deputies returned without an explanation, or even venturing
to demand one, she, with the calm energy of her character,
determined to chase away the strange cloud that appeared to be
settling round Mr. Hooper, every moment more darkly than before.
As his plighted wife, it should be her privilege to know what the
Twice Told Tales |
