| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: of gods and goddesses--on whom the enthusiasm and
adoration of the tribe was concentrated.[1] Miss Harrison
has ingeniously suggested how the leading figures in the magic
rituals of the past--being the figures on which all eyes
would be concentrated; and whose importance would be
imprinted on every mind--lent themselves to this process.
The suffering Victim, bound and scourged and crucified, recurring
year after year as the centre-figure of a thousand
ritual processions, would at last be dramatized and
idealized in the great race-consciousness into the form
of a Suffering God--a Jesus Christ or a Dionysus or
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: accustomed him to those swift reactions of the soul of which ecstasy
is at once the result and the means. This line of study, this peculiar
taste, elevated his heart, purified, ennobled it, gave him an appetite
for the divine nature, and suggested to him the almost womanly
refinement of feeling which is instinctive in great men; perhaps their
sublime superiority is no more than the desire to devote themselves
which characterizes woman, only transferred to the greatest things.
As a result of these early impressions, Louis passed immaculate
through his school life; this beautiful virginity of the senses
naturally resulted in the richer fervor of his blood, and in increased
faculties of mind.
Louis Lambert |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Just Folks by Edgar A. Guest: But to die is easier service than alone to sit and wait,
And I hail the little mother, with the tear-stained face and grave,
Who has given the flag a soldier--she's the bravest of the brave.
And that banner we are proud of, with its red and blue and white,
Is a lasting holy tribute to all mothers' love of right.
Memorial Day
The finest tribute we can pay
Unto our hero dead to-day,
Is not a rose wreath, white and red,
In memory of the blood they shed;
It is to stand beside each mound,
Just Folks |
