| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: his own, good; and that the makings (Greek) of the good you would call
doings (Greek), for I am no stranger to the endless distinctions which
Prodicus draws about names. Now I have no objection to your giving names
any signification which you please, if you will only tell me what you mean
by them. Please then to begin again, and be a little plainer. Do you mean
that this doing or making, or whatever is the word which you would use, of
good actions, is temperance?
I do, he said.
Then not he who does evil, but he who does good, is temperate?
Yes, he said; and you, friend, would agree.
No matter whether I should or not; just now, not what I think, but what you
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: completely personal act? It was so logical, that is, that one
might have TAKEN it for personal; yet for what did Brydon take it,
he asked himself, while, softly panting, he felt his eyes almost
leave their sockets. Ah this time at last they WERE, the two, the
opposed projections of him, in presence; and this time, as much as
one would, the question of danger loomed. With it rose, as not
before, the question of courage - for what he knew the blank face
of the door to say to him was "Show us how much you have!" It
stared, it glared back at him with that challenge; it put to him
the two alternatives: should he just push it open or not? Oh to
have this consciousness was to THINK - and to think, Brydon knew,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: fortunes, a whole people battle for your interests, as if in very deed
and truth their own. Your treasure-houses shall be coextensive with
the garnered riches of your friends and lovers.
Therefore be of good cheer, Hiero; enrich your friends, and you will
thereby heap riches on yourself. Build up and aggrandise your city,
for in so doing you will gird on power like a garment, and win allies
for her.[12]
[12] Some commentators suspect a lacuna at this point.
Esteem your fatherland as your estate, the citizens as comrades, your
friends as your own children, and your sons even as your own soul. And
study to excel them one and all in well-doing; for if you overcome
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