| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: of those which he actually held.
Two preliminary remarks may be made. First, that whatever latitude we may
allow to Plato in bringing together by a 'tour de force,' as in the
Phaedrus, dissimilar themes, yet he always in some way seeks to find a
connexion for them. Many threads join together in one the love and
dialectic of the Phaedrus. We cannot conceive that the great artist would
place in juxtaposition two absolutely divided and incoherent subjects. And
hence we are led to make a second remark: viz. that no explanation of the
Parmenides can be satisfactory which does not indicate the connexion of the
first and second parts. To suppose that Plato would first go out of his
way to make Parmenides attack the Platonic Ideas, and then proceed to a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: was not yet in power, and I was refused a pension. When I applied
again for it, quite lately, I was sternly informed that if the
Baron de Rouville had emigrated I should not have lost him; that
by this time he would have been a rear-admiral; finally, his
Excellency quoted I know not what degree of forfeiture. I took
this step, to which I was urged by my friends, only for the sake
of my poor Adelaide. I have always hated the idea of holding out
my hand as a beggar in the name of a grief which deprives a woman
of voice and strength. I do not like this money valuation for
blood irreparably spilt----"
"Dear mother, this subject always does you harm."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: be the gayest of them all. Either it was one of those up-quivering
flashes of the spirit, to which minds in an abnormal state are
liable, or else the artist had subtly touched some chord that made
musical vibration. Indeed, what with the pleasant summer
evening, and the sympathy of this little circle of not unkindly
souls, it was perhaps natural that a character so susceptible as
Clifford's should become animated, and show itself readily
responsive to what was said around him. But he gave out his
own thoughts, likewise, with an airy and fanciful glow; so that
they glistened, as it were, through the arbor, and made their
escape among the interstices of the foliage. He had been as
House of Seven Gables |
