| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: the diffi-culties of the poem much better than my notes can do;
and I recommend it (apart from the great interest of the book itself)
to any who think such elucidation of the poem worth the trouble.
To another work of anthropo-logy I am indebted in general, one which has
influenced our generation profoundly; I mean _The Golden Bough_; I have
used especially the two volumes _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_. Anyone who is
acquainted with these works will immediately recognize in the poem
certain references to vegetation ceremonies.
<1> Macmillan] Cambridge.
I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
Line 20. Cf. Ezekiel 2:7.
The Waste Land |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: Aubernon saw himself still a man of struggles and of warfare
with the world, but out of the seven who stood before him and
the high places of his family three only remained. These three,
however, were "good lives," but yet not proof against the Zulu
assegais and typhoid fever, and so one morning Aubernon woke up
and found himself Lord Argentine, a man of thirty who had faced
the difficulties of existence, and had conquered. The situation
amused him immensely, and he resolved that riches should be as
pleasant to him as poverty had always been. Argentine, after
some little consideration, came to the conclusion that dining,
regarded as a fine art, was perhaps the most amusing pursuit
The Great God Pan |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: Erasistratus. Now Erasistratus had just arrived from Sicily and that part
of the world. As they approached, he said, Hail, Socrates!
SOCRATES: The same to you, I said; have you any good news from Sicily to
tell us?
ERASISTRATUS: Most excellent. But, if you please, let us first sit down;
for I am tired with my yesterday's journey from Megara.
SOCRATES: Gladly, if that is your desire.
ERASISTRATUS: What would you wish to hear first? he said. What the
Sicilians are doing, or how they are disposed towards our city? To my
mind, they are very like wasps: so long as you only cause them a little
annoyance they are quite unmanageable; you must destroy their nests if you
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