| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: him who are one and all votaries of this god.[6] For myself I cannot
name the time at which I have not been in love with some one.[7] And
Charmides here has, to my knowledge, captivated many a lover, while
his own soul has gone out in longing for the love of not a few
himself.[8] So it is with Critobulus also; the beloved of yesterday is
become the lover of to-day. Ay, and Niceratus, as I am told, adores
his wife, and is by her adored.[9] As to Hermogenes, which of us needs
to be told[10] that the soul of this fond lover is consumed with
passion for a fair ideal--call it by what name you will--the spirit
blent of nobleness and beauty.[11] See you not what chaste severity
dwells on his brow;[12] how tranquil his gaze;[13] how moderate his
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: 'Midsummer-Night's Dream' contains?"
"I thought it was just a fairy sort of thing."
"Yes, but when a great poet sets his hand to a fairy sort of thing, you
get--well, you get poor Titania."
"She fell in love with a jackass," he remarked. "Puck bewitched her."
"Precisely. A lovely woman with her arms around a jackass. Does that
never happen in Kings Port?"
He began smiling to himself. "I'm afraid Puck isn't all dead yet."
I was now in a position to begin dropping my bitters. "Shakespeare was
probably too gallant to put it the other way, and make Oberon fall in
love with a female jackass. But what an allegory!"
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: member of the Cabinet. They are sure that this minister will not
appoint or remove even an assistant professor for political
reasons. Only once, as Arnold tells us, has such a thing been
done; and then public opinion expressed itself in such an
emphatic tone of disapproval that the displaced teacher was
instantly appointed to another position. Nothing of this sort,
says Arnold, could have occurred in England; but still less could
it occur in America. Had we such an educational system, there
would presently be an "Education Ring" to control it. Nor can
this difference be ascribed to the less eager political activity
of Germany. The Prussian state of things would have been possible
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
