| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: has ever seen; that which marks the third is a mere cloud-castle, an
inverted pyramid, not of speculation, but of dogmatic assertion, patched
together from all accessible rags and bones of the dead world. Some
here will, perhaps, guess from my rough descriptions, that I speak of
Iamblichus and Proclus.
Whether or not Iamblichus wrote the famous work usually attributed to
him, which describes itself as the letter of Abamnon the Teacher to
Porphyry, he became the head of that school of Neoplatonists who fell
back on theurgy and magic, and utterly swallowed up the more rational,
though more hopeless, school of Porphyry. Not that Porphyry, too, with
all his dislike of magic and the vulgar superstitions--a dislike
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: apple does not make the tree.
VERSE 20. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God.
Paul does not deny the fact that he is living in the flesh. He performs the
natural functions of the flesh. But he says that this is not his real life.
His life in the flesh is not a life after the flesh.
"I live by the faith of the Son of God," he says. "My speech is no longer
directed by the flesh, but by the Holy Ghost. My sight is no longer governed
by the flesh, but by the Holy Ghost. My hearing is no longer determined by
the flesh, but by the Holy Ghost. I cannot teach, write, pray, or give thanks
without the instrumentality of the flesh; yet these activities do not proceed
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: "If she doesn't you don't love her," said Lawton. "But my Eudora
IS that."
"That is a queer-sounding Greek name."
"She is Greek, like her name. Such beauty never grows old. She
stands on her pedestal, and time only looks at her to love her."
"I thought you were a business man as hard as nails," said the
young man, wonderingly. Lawton laughed.
When Thursday came, Lawton, carefully dressed and carrying a long
tissue-paper package, evidently of roses, approached the Yates
house. It was late in the afternoon. There had been a warm day,
and the trees were clouds of green and more bushes had blossomed.
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