| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: learned what he fancied that he knew, though he was really ignorant of it,
until he had fallen into perplexity under the idea that he did not know,
and had desired to know?
MENO: I think not, Socrates.
SOCRATES: Then he was the better for the torpedo's touch?
MENO: I think so.
SOCRATES: Mark now the farther development. I shall only ask him, and not
teach him, and he shall share the enquiry with me: and do you watch and
see if you find me telling or explaining anything to him, instead of
eliciting his opinion. Tell me, boy, is not this a square of four feet
which I have drawn?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: meant to teach me the right accent; wherein I spoke after him as
well as I could, and found myself perceivably to improve every
time, though very far from any degree of perfection. Then the
bay tried me with a second word, much harder to be pronounced;
but reducing it to the English orthography, may be spelt thus,
HOUYHNHNM. I did not succeed in this so well as in the former;
but after two or three farther trials, I had better fortune; and
they both appeared amazed at my capacity.
After some further discourse, which I then conjectured might
relate to me, the two friends took their leaves, with the same
compliment of striking each other's hoof; and the gray made me
Gulliver's Travels |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: who lives in Ashley Street, Piccadilly. I saw her entering a
house in one of the meanest and most disreputable streets in
Soho. In fact, I had made an appointment, though not with her,
and she was precise to both time and place."
"All this seems very wonderful, but I cannot call it
incredible. You must remember, Villiers, that I have seen this
woman, in the ordinary adventure of London society, talking and
laughing, and sipping her coffee in a commonplace drawing-room
with commonplace people. But you know what you are saying."
"I do; I have not allowed myself to be led by surmises
or fancies. It was with no thought of finding Helen Vaughan
The Great God Pan |
