| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: The young men appeared quite naked in the palaestra,
and even the girls of Sparta ran races publicly in
the same condition;[1] and some day when our bodies (and
minds too) have become clean we shall return to similar
institutions. But that will not be just yet. As long as
the defilement of this commercial civilization is on us we
shall prefer our dirt and concealment. The powers that
be will protest against change. Heinrich Scham, in his
charming little pamphlet Nackende Menschen,[2] describes the
consternation of the commercial people at such ideas:
" 'What will become of us,' cried the tailors, 'if you go
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: whilst yours, like other filthy lucre, can corrupt both judge and
jury.[15]
[15] {kai dikastas kai kritas}, "both jury and presiding judges," i.e.
the company and the boy and girl.
VI
Thereupon some members of the party called on Critobulus to accept the
meed of victory in kisses (due from boy and girl); others urged him
first to bribe their master; whilst others bandied other jests. Amidst
the general hilarity Hermogenes alone kept silence.
Whereat Socrates turned to the silent man, and thus accosted him:
Hermogenes, what is a drunken brawl? Can you explain to us?
The Symposium |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: are the emblems of human generosity; but Shakespear was not an emblem:
he was a man and the author of Hamlet, who had no illusions about his
mother. In weak moments one almost wishes he had.
Shakespear's Social Standing
On the vexed question of Shakespear's social standing Mr Harris says
that Shakespear "had not had the advantage of a middle-class
training." I suggest that Shakespear missed this questionable
advantage, not because he was socially too low to have attained to it,
but because he conceived himself as belonging to the upper class from
which our public school boys are now drawn. Let Mr Harris survey for
a moment the field of contemporary journalism. He will see there some
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