| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: sayings and doings that make you laugh: indeed, the whole thing
is exactly like real life.
O.M. Your dreaming mind originates the scheme, consistently
and artistically develops it, and carries the little drama
creditably through--all without help or suggestion from you?
Y.M. Yes.
O.M. It is argument that it could do the like awake without help
or suggestion from you--and I think it does. It is argument that
it is the same old mind in both cases, and never needs your help.
I think the mind is purely a machine, a thoroughly independent
machine, an automatic machine. Have you tried the other
What is Man? |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: is well beyond the donor's jurisdiction.
So much for friends, and as to enemies conversely. How can you say
"most power of triumphing over our enemies," when every tyrant knows
full well they are all his enemies, every man of them, who are
despotically ruled by him? And to put the whole of them to death or to
imprison them is hardly possible; or who will be his subjects
presently? Not so, but knowing they are his enemies, he must perform
this dexterous feat:[14] he must keep them at arm's length, and yet be
compelled to lean upon them.
[14] Lit. "he must at one and the same moment guard against them, and
yet be driven also to depend upon them."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: thy father whilst yet a boy--a stranger to all those ambitions which
every generous soul should feel--and how I was brought up by him, and
loved as though I had been born of his blood; how under his governance
I learned to be valiant and capable of availing myself of all that
fortune, of which thou hast been witness. When thy good father came to
die, he committed thee and all his possessions to my care, and I have
brought thee up with that love, and increased thy estate with that
care, which I was bound to show. And in order that thou shouldst not
only possess the estate which thy father left, but also that which my
fortune and abilities have gained, I have never married, so that the
love of children should never deflect my mind from that gratitude
The Prince |
