| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: The Lybian lion tears the roaring bull,
He does not harm the midge along the pool.
Lo! if so close this stands in your regard,
From some blind tap fish forth a drunken barn,
Who shall with charcoal, on the privy wall,
Immortalise your name for once and all.
IN LUPUM
BEYOND the gates thou gav'st a field to till;
I have a larger on my window-sill.
A farm, d'ye say? Is this a farm to you,
Where for all woods I spay one tuft of rue,
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: Enter Iuliet.
Here comes the Lady. Oh so light a foot
Will nere weare out the euerlasting flint,
A Louer may bestride the Gossamours,
That ydles in the wanton Summer ayre,
And yet not fall, so light is vanitie
Iul. Good euen to my ghostly Confessor
Fri. Romeo shall thanke thee Daughter for vs both
Iul. As much to him, else in his thanks too much
Fri. Ah Iuliet, if the measure of thy ioy
Be heapt like mine, and that thy skill be more
Romeo and Juliet |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: a world beyond; and, if the nature of man could sustain the sight, he would
acknowledge that this other world was the place of the true heaven and the
true light and the true earth. For our earth, and the stones, and the
entire region which surrounds us, are spoilt and corroded, as in the sea
all things are corroded by the brine, neither is there any noble or perfect
growth, but caverns only, and sand, and an endless slough of mud: and even
the shore is not to be compared to the fairer sights of this world. And
still less is this our world to be compared with the other. Of that upper
earth which is under the heaven, I can tell you a charming tale, Simmias,
which is well worth hearing.
And we, Socrates, replied Simmias, shall be charmed to listen to you.
|
