| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: denote, that the requisite association is formed unconsciously.
The themes are neither long, nor complicated, nor difficult.
Whoever can pick up the flourish of a coach-horn, the note of a
bird, the rhythm of the postman's knock or of a horse's gallop,
will be at no loss in picking up the themes of The Ring. No
doubt, when it comes to forming the necessary mental association
with the theme, it may happen that the spectator may find his ear
conquering the tune more easily than his mind conquers the
thought. But for the most part the themes do not denote thoughts
at all, but either emotions of a quite simple universal kind, or
the sights, sounds and fancies common enough to be familiar to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: "At last, fair lady," quoth Ubaldo good,
"That in this endless main dost guide us here,
If ever man before here sailed tell,
Or other lands here be wherein men dwell."
XXV
"Great Hercules," quoth she, "when he had quailed
The monsters fierce in Afric and in Spain,
And all along your coasts and countries sailed,
Yet durst he not assay the ocean main,
Within his pillars would he have impaled
The overdaring wit of mankind vain,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: insisted she should not. I sent for Liddy to help her to bed,
and then Halsey and I started for the lodge. The grass was heavy
with dew, and, man-like, Halsey chose the shortest way across the
lawn. Half-way, however, he stopped.
"We'd better go by the drive," he said. "This isn't a lawn; it's
a field. Where's the gardener these days?"
"There isn't any," I said meekly. "We have been thankful enough,
so far, to have our meals prepared and served and the beds aired.
The gardener who belongs here is working at the club."
"Remind me to-morrow to send out a man from town," he said. "I
know the very fellow."
The Circular Staircase |
