| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: Medicis. He left his wife at home, rejoiced to be alone with her two
children, while he went every night to the Rogrons' with Madame and
Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. He arrived there in all the glory of
better circumstances. His spectacles were of gold, his waistcoat silk;
a white cravat, black trousers, thin boots, a black coat made in
Paris, and a gold watch and chain, made up his apparel. In place of
the former Vinet, pale and thin, snarling and gloomy, the present
Vinet bore himself with the air and manner of a man of importance; he
marched boldly forward, certain of success, with that peculiar show of
security which belongs to lawyers who know the hidden places of the
law. His sly little head was well-brushed, his chin well-shaved, which
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: may be supposed to have thought more than he said, or was able to express.
And, although he could not, as a matter of fact, have criticized the ideas
of Plato without an anachronism, the criticism is appropriately placed in
the mouth of the founder of the ideal philosophy.
There was probably a time in the life of Plato when the ethical teaching of
Socrates came into conflict with the metaphysical theories of the earlier
philosophers, and he sought to supplement the one by the other. The older
philosophers were great and awful; and they had the charm of antiquity.
Something which found a response in his own mind seemed to have been lost
as well as gained in the Socratic dialectic. He felt no incongruity in the
veteran Parmenides correcting the youthful Socrates. Two points in his
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: friendly voice insisted, "You know, you really must."
It was not an argument, but I submitted at once. If one must! .
. .
You perceive the force of a word. He who wants to persuade
should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right
word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power
of sense. I don't say this by way of disparagement. It is
better for mankind to be impressionable than reflective. Nothing
humanely great--great, I mean, as affecting a whole mass of
lives--has come from reflection. On the other hand, you cannot
fail to see the power of mere words; such words as Glory, for
A Personal Record |
