| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: none the less. I know it is with certain human beings as with horses,
some trick of the blood they have, some inborn tendency; the more
their wants are satisfied, the more their wantonness will out. Well
then, to sober and chastise wild spirits, there is nothing like the
terror of your men-at-arms.[1] And as to gentler natures,[2] I do not
know by what means you could bestow so many benefits upon them as by
means of mercenaries.
[1] Lit. "spear-bearers"; the title given to the body-guard of kings
and tyrants.
[2] Lit. "the beautiful and good," the {kalois kagathois}. See "Econ."
vi. 11 foll.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Glasses by Henry James: personages too, but she liked her "little viscount" just as he was,
and liked to think that, bullied and persecuted, he had her there
so gratefully to rest upon. She came back to me with tale upon
tale, and it all might be or mightn't. I never met my pretty model
in the world--she moved, it appeared, in exalted circles--and could
only admire, in her wealth of illustration, the grandeur of her
life and the freedom of her hand.
I had on the first opportunity spoken to her of Geoffrey Dawling,
and she had listened to my story so far as she had the art of such
patience, asking me indeed more questions about him than I could
answer; then she had capped my anecdote with others much more
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: the brute creation, had used all these advantages with a view to
philosophy, conversing with the brutes as well as with one another, and
learning of every nature which was gifted with any special power, and was
able to contribute some special experience to the store of wisdom, there
would be no difficulty in deciding that they would be a thousand times
happier than the men of our own day. Or, again, if they had merely eaten
and drunk until they were full, and told stories to one another and to the
animals--such stories as are now attributed to them--in this case also, as
I should imagine, the answer would be easy. But until some satisfactory
witness can be found of the love of that age for knowledge and discussion,
we had better let the matter drop, and give the reason why we have
Statesman |
