We're caught in the middle of a maelstrom,
Wednesday 4 August 2021
You Gotta Have Have Faith
We're caught in the middle of a maelstrom,
Tuesday 10 November 2020
Release The Hounds
"These puppies are of the same parents, but by virtue of a different bringing up The One is pampered, and The Other A Good Hound."
Let so much suffice for habit and modes of life.
Full shot.
Long shot.
Darkness. This is not Our Sky.
LECTURER (O.S.)
For many days before The End of Our
Earth, People will look into The Night Sky and notice a star, increasingly bright and increasingly near.
JIM looks around for a seat and passes down aisle.
a seat to be nearer. They exchange looks.
Full shot.
LECTURER (O.S.)
As This Star approaches Us, The Weather will change.
will turn warmer.
Low angle.
collar.
LECTURER
The Last of Us search The Heavens and Stand Amazed. For The Stars will still be there, moving through their ancient rhythms.
Angle shot.
An OLD LADY TEACHER in f.g. taps the heads of two kids in the row before her.
LECTURER (O.S.)
The familiar constellations that illuminate our night will seem as they have always seemed, eternal, unchanged and little moved by the shortness of time between Our Planet's Birth and its Demise.
Med. shot. PLATO staring upward.
LECTURER (O.S.)
Orion, The Hunter.
PLATO looks off.
Med. shot. JIM (from PLATO's angle).
JIM
Boy!
PLATO
(leaning forward)
What?
JIM
(surprised)
Once you been Up There,
LECTURER (O.S.)
Gemini, the Twins.
Two shot. JUDY and BUZZ.
LECTURER (O.S.)
(continuing)
Cancer, the Crab.
BUZZ pokes JUDY who looks at him.
the pincers of a crab.
"To speak generally, what we are wont to say about the arts and sciences is also true of moral excellence, for to its perfect development three things must meet together, natural ability, theory, and practice.
By theory I mean training, and by practice working at one's craft.
Now the foundation must be laid in training, and practice gives facility, but perfection is attained only by the junction of all three. For if any one of these elements be wanting, excellence must be so far deficient.
For natural ability without training is blind: and training without natural ability is defective, and practice without both natural ability and training is imperfect.
For just as in farming the first requisite is good soil, next a good farmer, next good seed, so also here: the soil corresponds to natural ability, the training to the farmer, the seed to precepts and instruction.
I should therefore maintain stoutly that these three elements were found combined in the souls of such universally famous men as Pythagoras, and Socrates, and Plato, and of all who have won undying fame. Happy at any rate and dear to the gods is he to whom any deity has vouchsafed all these elements!
But if anyone thinks that those who have not good natural ability cannot to some extent make up for the deficiencies of Nature by Right Training and Practice, let such a one know that he is very wide of The Mark, if not out of it altogether.
For good natural parts are impaired by sloth; while inferior ability is mended by training: and while simple things escape the eyes of the careless, difficult things are reached by painstaking.
The wonderful efficacy and power of long and continuous labour you may see indeed every day in the world around you.
Thus water continually dropping wears away rocks: and iron and steel are moulded by the hands of the artificer: and chariot wheels bent by some strain can never recover their original symmetry: and the crooked staves of actors can never be made straight.
But by toil what is contrary to nature becomes stronger than even nature itself.
And are these the only things that teach The Power of Diligence?
Not so: ten thousand things teach the same Truth.
A soil naturally good becomes by neglect barren, and the better its original condition, the worse its ultimate state if uncared for.
On the other hand a soil exceedingly rough and sterile by being farmed well produces excellent crops.
And what trees do not by neglect become gnarled and unfruitful, whereas by pruning they become fruitful and productive?
And what constitution so good but it is marred and impaired by sloth, luxury, and too full habit?
And what weak constitution has not derived benefit from exercise and athletics?
And what horses broken in young are not docile to their riders? while if they are not broken in till late they become hard-mouthed and unmanageable.
And why should we be surprised at similar cases, seeing that we find many of the savagest animals docile and tame by training?
Rightly answered the Thessalian, who was asked who the mildest Thessalians were, "Those who have done with fighting."
But why pursue the line of argument further? For the Greek name for moral virtue is only habit : and if anyone defines moral virtues as habitual virtues, he will not be beside The Mark. But I will employ only one more illustration, and dwell no longer on this topic.
Lycurgus, the Lacedæmonian legislator, took Two Puppies of The Same Parents, and brought them up in an entirely different way : The One he pampered and cosseted up, while he taught The Other to Hunt and be A Retriever.
Then on one occasion, when the Lacedæmonians were convened in assembly, he said, "Mighty, O Lacedæmonians, is the influence on moral excellence of habit, and education, and training, and modes of life, as I will prove to you at once."
So saying he produced The Two Puppies, and set before them A Platter and A Hare : The One darted on The Hare, while The Other made for The Platter.
And when the Lacedæmonians could not guess what his meaning was, or with what intent he had produced the puppies, he said,
"These puppies are of the same parents, but by virtue of a different bringing up The One is pampered, and The Other A Good Hound."
Let so much suffice for Habit and Modes of Life.