| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: of the sea. There shall the fishes feed on the fat of Lycaon as
they dart under the dark ripple of the waters--so perish all of
you till we reach the citadel of strong Ilius--you in flight, and
I following after to destroy you. The river with its broad silver
stream shall serve you in no stead, for all the bulls you offered
him and all the horses that you flung living into his waters.
None the less miserably shall you perish till there is not a man
of you but has paid in full for the death of Patroclus and the
havoc you wrought among the Achaeans whom you have slain while I
held aloof from battle."
So spoke Achilles, but the river grew more and more angry, and
The Iliad |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: thought of youthful manhood. And yet the Alexandrian impotence for any
practical and social purposes was to be manifested, as utterly as it was
in Alexandria or in Athens of old. Ficinus and Picus of Mirandola
worked no deliverance, either for Italian morals or polity, at a time
when such deliverance was needed bitterly enough. Neoplatonism was
petted by luxurious and heathen popes, as an elegant play of the
cultivated fancy, which could do their real power, their practical
system, neither good nor harm. And one cannot help feeling, while
reading the magnificent oration on Supra-sensual Love, which
Castiglione, in his admirable book "The Courtier," puts into the mouth
of the profligate Bembo, how near mysticism may lie not merely to
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: beaten themselves out against the banks. The pool still rocked
sullenly, and the yellow light showed a man's hat floating, and
near it a glove three parts submerged. But that was all. The
mute's dying grip had known no loosening, nor his hate any fear.
I heard afterwards that when they dragged the two out next day,
his fingers were in the other's eye-sockets, his teeth in his
throat. If ever man found death sweet, it was he!
As we turned slowly from the black water, some shuddering, some
crossing themselves, the Lieutenant looked at me.
'Curse you!' he said passionately. 'I believe that you are
glad.'
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