| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: ignorant.
2. The difficulty in governing the people arises from their having
much knowledge. He who (tries to) govern a state by his wisdom is a
scourge to it; while he who does not (try to) do so is a blessing.
3. He who knows these two things finds in them also his model and
rule. Ability to know this model and rule constitutes what we call
the mysterious excellence (of a governor). Deep and far-reaching is
such mysterious excellence, showing indeed its possessor as opposite
to others, but leading them to a great conformity to him.
66. 1. That whereby the rivers and seas are able to receive the homage
and tribute of all the valley streams, is their skill in being lower
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: notions, Descartes first falls absolutely under their influence, and then
quickly discards them. At the same time he is less able to observe facts,
because they are too much magnified by the glasses through which they are
seen. The common logic says 'the greater the extension, the less the
comprehension,' and we may put the same thought in another way and say of
abstract or general ideas, that the greater the abstraction of them, the
less are they capable of being applied to particular and concrete natures.
Not very different from Descartes in his relation to ancient philosophy is
his successor Spinoza, who lived in the following generation. The system
of Spinoza is less personal and also less dualistic than that of Descartes.
In this respect the difference between them is like that between Xenophanes
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: whole earth, and he was all in all. Yet, when he met you, he'd greet you
just as one neighbour
greets another,--and if you were frightened, he knew so well how to put
you at your ease--ay, you understand me--he walked out, rode out, just as
it came into his head, with very few followers. We all wept when he
resigned the government here to his son. You understand me--he is
another sort of man, he's more majestic.
Jetter. When he was here, he never appeared in public, except in pomp and
royal state. He speaks little, they say.
Soest. He is no king for us Netherlanders. Our princes must be joyous and
free like ourselves, must live and let live. We will neither be despised nor
Egmont |
