| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: spiritual strain he might be able to hide the secrets of his nest
as the fox and the wild duck do. Every family has its joys and
its horrors, but however great they may be, it's hard for an
outsider's eye to see them; they are a secret. The father of the
old lady who had just driven by, for instance, had for some
offence lain for half his lifetime under the ban of the wrath of
Tsar Nicolas I.; her husband had been a gambler; of her four
sons, not one had turned out well. One could imagine how many
terrible scenes there must have been in her life, how many tears
must have been shed. And yet the old lady seemed happy and
satisfied, and she had answered his smile by smiling too. The
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: offhand,[15] especially if you have invention to create a scare in the
minds of the pursuers by help of the moiety of troops who are out of
action.[16] For this purpose false ambuscades will be of use.
[15] Or, "by themselves," reading {ex auton}, as L. Dind. suggests.
Cf. Polyb. x. 40. 6, or if as vulg. {ex auton} (sub. {kheiron},
Weiske), transl. "to slip through their fingers."
[16] Zeune and other commentators cf Liv. v. 38 (Diod. xiv. 114), but
the part played by the Roman subsidiarii at the battle of the
Allia, if indeed "una salus fugientibus," was scarcely happy.
Would not "Hell." VII. v. 26 be more to the point? The detachment
of cavalry and infantry placed by Epaminondas "on certain crests,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: makes a long speech not much to the point, which elicits the applause of
the audience.
Here occurs a sort of interlude, which commences with a declaration on the
part of Socrates that he cannot follow a long speech, and therefore he must
beg Protagoras to speak shorter. As Protagoras declines to accommodate
him, he rises to depart, but is detained by Callias, who thinks him
unreasonable in not allowing Protagoras the liberty which he takes himself
of speaking as he likes. But Alcibiades answers that the two cases are not
parallel. For Socrates admits his inability to speak long; will Protagoras
in like manner acknowledge his inability to speak short?
Counsels of moderation are urged first in a few words by Critias, and then
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