| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: your friends, when I reflect that the whole business will be attributed
entirely to our want of courage. The trial need never have come on, or
might have been managed differently; and this last act, or crowning folly,
will seem to have occurred through our negligence and cowardice, who might
have saved you, if we had been good for anything; and you might have saved
yourself, for there was no difficulty at all. See now, Socrates, how sad
and discreditable are the consequences, both to us and you. Make up your
mind then, or rather have your mind already made up, for the time of
deliberation is over, and there is only one thing to be done, which must be
done this very night, and if we delay at all will be no longer practicable
or possible; I beseech you therefore, Socrates, be persuaded by me, and do
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy: Donald and Mr. Henchard were inseparables. When walking
together Henchard would lay his arm familiarly on his
manager's shoulder, as if Farfrae were a younger brother,
bearing so heavily that his slight frame bent under the
weight. Occasionally she would hear a perfect cannonade of
laughter from Henchard, arising from something Donald had
said, the latter looking quite innocent and not laughing at
all. In Henchard's somewhat lonely life he evidently found
the young man as desirable for comradeship as he was useful
for consultations. Donald's brightness of intellect
maintained in the corn-factor the admiration it had won at
The Mayor of Casterbridge |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: disobedient to chastise him. This principle, though capable of being
stated in a few words, is one which holds good throughout the whole of
horsemanship. As, for instance, a horse will more readily take the
bit, if each time he accepts it some good befalls him; or, again, he
will leap ditches and spring up embankments and perform all the other
feats incumbent on him, if he be led to associate obedience to the
word of command with relaxation.[13]
[13] Lit. "if every time he performs the word of command he is led to
expect some relaxation."
IX
The topics hitherto considered have been: firstly, how to reduce the
On Horsemanship |
