| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: direction, but I crashed without warning into what, from the
resulting jangle, was the dining-table, probably laid for dinner.
I cursed my stupidity in getting into such a situation, and I
cursed my nerves for making my hand shake when I tried to strike a
match. The groan had not been repeated.
I braced myself against the table and struck the match sharply
against the sole of my shoe. It flickered faintly and went out.
And then, without the slightest warning, another dish went off the
table. It fell with a thousand splinterings; the very air seemed
broken into crashing waves of sound. I stood still, braced
against the table, holding the red end of the dying match, and
The Man in Lower Ten |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: few; which, as I reply, is very natural. But when they meet to deliberate
about political virtue, which proceeds only by way of justice and wisdom,
they are patient enough of any man who speaks of them, as is also natural,
because they think that every man ought to share in this sort of virtue,
and that states could not exist if this were otherwise. I have explained
to you, Socrates, the reason of this phenomenon.
And that you may not suppose yourself to be deceived in thinking that all
men regard every man as having a share of justice or honesty and of every
other political virtue, let me give you a further proof, which is this. In
other cases, as you are aware, if a man says that he is a good flute-
player, or skilful in any other art in which he has no skill, people either
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: foreigners; whereas now I am very well aware that those who are
reputed to be leading citizens have but one ambition, and that is to
live to the end of their days as governors-general on a foreign
soil.[4] The days were when their sole anxiety was to fit themselves
to lead the rest of Hellas. But nowadays they concern themselves much
more to wield command than to be fit themselves to rule. And so it has
come to pass that whereas in old days the states of Hellas flocked to
Lacedaemon seeking her leadership[5] against the supposed wrongdoer,
now numbers are inviting one another to prevent the Lacedaemonians
again recovering their empire.[6] Yet, if they have incurred all these
reproaches, we need not wonder, seeing that they are so plainly
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