| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the Mahars flew to and from their place of ceremonial,
entering and leaving the building by means of the apertures
in the roof.
"But," added Ja, "there is an entrance near the base
of which even the Mahars know nothing. Come," and he
led me across the clearing and about the end to a pile
of loose rock which lay against the foot of the wall.
Here he removed a couple of large bowlders, revealing a
small opening which led straight within the building,
or so it seemed, though as I entered after Ja I discovered
myself in a narrow place of extreme darkness.
At the Earth's Core |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: of the Antarctic expeditions (I forget which, but I think one
of Shackleton's): it was related that the party of explorers,
at the extremity of their strength, had the constant delusion
that there was _one more member_ than could actually be counted.
366-76. Cf. Hermann Hesse, _Blick ins Chaos_:
Schon ist halb Europa, schon ist zumindest der halbe Osten Europas auf dem
Wege zum Chaos, fährt betrunken im heiligen Wahn am Abgrund entlang
und singt dazu, singt betrunken und hymnisch wie Dmitri Karamasoff sang.
Ueber diese Lieder lacht der Bürger beleidigt, der Heilige
und Seher hört sie mit Tränen.
401. 'Datta, dayadhvam, damyata' (Give, sympathize,
The Waste Land |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: always have been one of those natures who must be guided by reason,
whatever the reason may be which upon reflection appears to me to be the
best; and now that this chance has befallen me, I cannot repudiate my own
words: the principles which I have hitherto honoured and revered I still
honour, and unless we can at once find other and better principles, I am
certain not to agree with you; no, not even if the power of the multitude
could inflict many more imprisonments, confiscations, deaths, frightening
us like children with hobgoblin terrors (compare Apol.). What will be the
fairest way of considering the question? Shall I return to your old
argument about the opinions of men?--we were saying that some of them are
to be regarded, and others not. Now were we right in maintaining this
|
