| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: over a city, and the houses fall in the glare of its burning--
even such was the roar and tramp of men and horses that pursued
them as they bore Patroclus from the field. Or as mules that put
forth all their strength to draw some beam or great piece of
ship's timber down a rough mountain-track, and they pant and
sweat as they, go even so did Menelaus and pant and sweat as they
bore the body of Patroclus. Behind them the two Ajaxes held
stoutly out. As some wooded mountain-spur that stretches across a
plain will turn water and check the flow even of a great river,
nor is there any stream strong enough to break through it--even
so did the two Ajaxes face the Trojans and stem the tide of their
The Iliad |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: Greece gave us, they plaited with garlands the leaves of the bitter
laurel and of the wild parsley, which else had been of no service
to men.
We call ours a utilitarian age, and we do not know the uses of any
single thing. We have forgotten that water can cleanse, and fire
purify, and that the Earth is mother to us all. As a consequence
our art is of the moon and plays with shadows, while Greek art is
of the sun and deals directly with things. I feel sure that in
elemental forces there is purification, and I want to go back to
them and live in their presence.
Of course to one so modern as I am, 'Enfant de mon siecle,' merely
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: Or at the roe which no encounter dare: 676
Pursue these fearful creatures o'er the downs,
And on thy well-breath'd horse keep with thy hound.
'And when thou hast on foot the purblind hare,
Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles 680
How he outruns the winds, and with what care
He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles:
The many musits through the which he goes
Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes. 684
'Sometime he runs among a flock of sheep,
To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell,
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