| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: for. And why? Distinctions vanish with the use of perfumes. The
freeman and the slave have forthwith both alike one odour. But the
scents derived from toils--those toils which every free man loves[7]--
need customary habit first, and time's distillery, if they are to be
sweet with freedom's breath, at last.[8]
[5] Cf. Solomon's Song, iv. 10: "How fair is thy love, my sister, my
spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of
thine ointments than all spices!"
[6] Lit. "the gymnasium."
[7] Cf. Aristoph. "Clouds," 1002 foll. See J. A. Symonds, "The Greek
Poets," 1st s., p. 281.
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: Encompasses and borders on all things.
Thus, then, this air in iron so deeply stored
Is tossed evermore in vexed motion,
And therefore drubs upon the ring sans doubt
And shakes it up inside....
. . . . . .
In sooth, that ring is thither borne along
To where 'thas once plunged headlong- thither, lo,
Unto the void whereto it took its start.
It happens, too, at times that nature of iron
Shrinks from this stone away, accustomed
Of The Nature of Things |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells: have more detailed information of what he called this extraordinary state
of affairs, for from the solidity of the earth there had always been a
disposition regard it as uninhabitable. He endeavoured first to ascertain
the extremes of temperature to which we earth beings were exposed, and he
was deeply interested by my descriptive treatment of clouds and rain. His
imagination was assisted by the fact that the lunar atmosphere in the
outer galleries of the night side is not infrequently very foggy. He
seemed inclined to marvel that we did not find the sunlight too intense
for our eyes, and was interested in my attempt to explain that the sky was
tempered to a bluish colour through the refraction of the air, though I
doubt if he clearly understood that. I explained how the iris of the human
The First Men In The Moon |
