| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: are some pleasures, further, if I may trust my own sensations, which
are conveyed in sleep, though how and by what means and when
precisely, are matters as to which I am still more conscious of my
ignorance. Nor is it to be wondered at perhaps, if the perceptions of
waking life in some way strike more clearly on our senses than do
those of sleep.[11]
[7] Or, "if I may trust my powers of observation I would say that
common men are capable of pains and pleasures conveyed through
certain avenues of sense, as sight through our eyes, sounds
through our ears, smells through our noses, and meats and drinks
through our mouths."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: heart. Be this as it may, henceforth I drink no more wine--for ever.
The abuse of good liquor last evening led me into much guilty folly.
When I remember that I very nearly----" He gave a glance of terror at
Marianna. "As to the wretched opera you took me to hear, I have
thought it over, and it is, after all, music written on ordinary
lines, a mountain of piled-up notes, /verba et voces/. It is but the
dregs of the nectar I can drink in deep draughts as I reproduce the
heavenly music that I hear! It is a patchwork of airs of which I could
trace the origin. The passage '/Gloire a la Providence/' is too much
like a bit of Handel; the chorus of knights is closely related to the
Scotch air in /La Dame Blanche/; in short, if this opera is a success,
Gambara |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: While he thus meditated, he was engaged in fastening up his horse
in a shed. "Thou maun do without horse-sheet and surcingle now,
lad," he said, addressing the animal; "you and me hae had a
downcome alike; we had better hae fa'en i, the deepest pool o'
Tarras."
He was interrupted by the youngest of his sisters, who came
running out, and, speaking in a constrained voice, as if to
stifle some emotion, called out to him, "What are ye doing there,
Hobbie, fiddling about the naig, and there's ane frae Cumberland
been waiting here for ye this hour and mair? Haste ye in, man;
I'll take off the saddle."
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