| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: and "Mind how you balance yourself there;" but the good guide walks
on quietly, without a word, only with his eyes on you when need is,
and his arm like an iron bar, if need be.
In that slow way, also, art can be taught--if you have faith in your
guide, and will let his arm be to you as an iron bar when need is.
But in what teacher of art have you such faith? Certainly not in
me; for, as I told you at first, I know well enough it is only
because you think I can talk, not because you think I know my
business, that you let me speak to you at all. If I were to tell
you anything that seemed to you strange you would not believe it,
and yet it would only be in telling you strange things that I could
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: imitator. The excellence of the forgery may be fairly adduced as an
argument that it is not a forgery at all. In this uncertainty the express
testimony of Aristotle, who quotes, in the Rhetoric, the well-known words,
'It is easy to praise the Athenians among the Athenians,' from the Funeral
Oration, may perhaps turn the balance in its favour. It must be remembered
also that the work was famous in antiquity, and is included in the
Alexandrian catalogues of Platonic writings.
MENEXENUS
by
Plato (see Appendix I above)
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: illness. Many cases of illness there undoubtedly were, since
this period was the worst of the typhus epidemic, but besides
illness, and besides mere obvious idleness which no
doubt accounts for a certain proportion of illegitimate
holidays, there is another explanation which goes nearer the
root of the matter. Much of the time filched from the State
was in all probability spent in expeditions in search of food.
In Petrograd, the Council of Public Economy complain that
there is a tendency to turn the eight-hour day into a four-hour
day. Attempts are being made to arrest this tendency
by making an additional food allowance conditional on the
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