| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: involuntarily pressed on her that she herself must venture, were
it but the point of her fairy foot, beyond the prescribed
boundary, if she ever hoped to give a lover so reserved and
bashful an opportunity of so slight a favour as but to salute her
shoe-tie. There was an example--the noted precedent of the
"King's daughter of Hungary," who thus generously encouraged the
"squire of low degree;" and Edith, though of kingly blood, was no
king's daughter, any more than her lover was of low degree
--fortune had put no such extreme barrier in obstacle to their
affections. Something, however, within the maiden's bosom--that
modest pride which throws fetters even on love itself forbade
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: beginning, and that at a later time, when the Priest
and the King, as objects of worship, took the place
of the Lingam, THEY also were anointed with the chrism of
fertility. That the exhibition of these emblems should be
part of the original 'Mystery'-rituals was perfectly
natural--especially because, as we have explained already[3]
old customs often continued on in a quite naive fashion
in the rituals, when they had come to be thought indecent
or improper by a later public opinion; and (we may say)
was perfectly in order, because there is plenty of evidence to
show that in SAVAGE initiations, of which the Mysteries were
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: its blossom, then ripen. Whereas then the fruit of the fig-tree
reaches not maturity suddenly nor yet in a single hour, do you
nevertheless desire so quickly, and easily to reap the fruit of
the mind of man?-- Nay, expect it not, even though I bade you!"
XL
Epaphroditus had a shoemaker whom he sold as being good-for-nothing.
This fellow, by some accident, was afterwards
purchased by one of Caesar's men, and became a shoemaker to
Caesar. You should have seen what respect Epaphroditus paid him
then. "How does the good Felicion? Kindly let me know!" And if
any of us inquired, "What is Epaphroditus doing?" the answer was,
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
