| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: public opinion, I feel that such conduct would be discreditable to myself,
and to you, and to the whole state. One who has reached my years, and who
has a name for wisdom, ought not to demean himself. Whether this opinion
of me be deserved or not, at any rate the world has decided that Socrates
is in some way superior to other men. And if those among you who are said
to be superior in wisdom and courage, and any other virtue, demean
themselves in this way, how shameful is their conduct! I have seen men of
reputation, when they have been condemned, behaving in the strangest
manner: they seemed to fancy that they were going to suffer something
dreadful if they died, and that they could be immortal if you only allowed
them to live; and I think that such are a dishonour to the state, and that
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: were kings in her time. Antony was so great as to be thought by
others worthy of higher things than his own desires.
As regards the right and justice of their aims at empire,
Demetrius need not be blamed for seeking to rule a people that
had always had a king to rule them. Antony, who enslaved the
Roman people, just liberated from the rule of Caesar, followed a
cruel and tyrannical object. His greatest and most illustrious
work, his successful war with Brutus and Cassius, was done to
crush the liberties of his country and of his fellow-citizens.
Demetrius, till he was driven to extremity, went on, without
intermission, maintaining liberty in Greece, and expelling the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: at home, more in your element, anywhere than you did that
afternoon with Mrs. Charmond, when she showed you her house and
all her knick-knacks, and made you stay to tea so nicely in her
drawing-room--surely you did!"
"Yes, I did say so," admitted Grace.
"Was it true?"
"Yes, I felt so at the time. The feeling is less strong now,
perhaps."
"Ah! Now, though you don't see it, your feeling at the time was
the right one, because your mind and body were just in full and
fresh cultivation, so that going there with her was like meeting
The Woodlanders |
