| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: Reitzenstein says (op. cit., p. 20.) that the Initiates, like
some of the Christian Nuns at a later time, believed
in union with God through receiving the seed.
[6] Farnell, op. cit., iii. 176. Messrs. Gardner and Jevons, in
their Manual of Greek Antiquities, above-quoted, compare the
Eleusinian Mysteries favorably with some of the others, like the
Arcadian, the Troezenian, the Aeginaean, and the very primitive
Samothracian: saying (p. 278) that of the last-mentioned "we know
little, but safely conjecture that in them the ideas of sex and
procreation dominated EVEN MORE than in those of Eleusis."
After all it is pretty clear that the early peoples saw
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: Lysimachus is extremely graceful; and his military exploits naturally
connect him with the two generals, of whom one has witnessed them. The
characters of Nicias and Laches are indicated by their opinions on the
exhibition of the man fighting in heavy armour. The more enlightened
Nicias is quite ready to accept the new art, which Laches treats with
ridicule, seeming to think that this, or any other military question, may
be settled by asking, 'What do the Lacedaemonians say?' The one is the
thoughtful general, willing to avail himself of any discovery in the art of
war (Aristoph. Aves); the other is the practical man, who relies on his own
experience, and is the enemy of innovation; he can act but cannot speak,
and is apt to lose his temper. It is to be noted that one of them is
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: golden outdoor glow shone in so many open chinks, that we
enjoyed, at the same time, some of the comforts of a roof and
much of the gaiety and brightness of al fresco life. A
single shower of rain, to be sure, and we should have been
drowned out like mice. But ours was a Californian summer,
and an earthquake was a far likelier accident than a shower
of rain.
Trustful in this fine weather, we kept the house for kitchen
and bedroom, and used the platform as our summer parlour.
The sense of privacy, as I have said already, was complete.
We could look over the clump on miles of forest and rough
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