| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: Together we moved over to the bed, and I lifted
the lawn from her face. God! How beautiful she was.
Every hour seemed to be enhancing her loveliness.
It frightened and amazed me somewhat. And as for Arthur, he fell
to trembling, and finally was shaken with doubt as with an ague.
At last, after a long pause, he said to me in a faint whisper,
"Jack, is she really dead?"
I assured him sadly that it was so, and went on to suggest, for I felt
that such a horrible doubt should not have life for a moment longer than I
could help, that it often happened that after death faces become softened
and even resolved into their youthful beauty, that this was especially
Dracula |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake: Are such things done on Albion's shore?
A LITTLE GIRL LOST
Children of the future age,
Reading this indignant page,
Know that in a former time
Love, sweet love, was thought a crime.
In the age of gold,
Free from winter's cold,
Youth and maiden bright,
To the holy light,
Naked in the sunny beams delight.
Songs of Innocence and Experience |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: is present to the mind's eye.
[22] Lit. "being beautiful"; but there is a touch of bombast infused
into the speech by the artist. Cf. the speech of Callias ("Hell."
VI. iii. 3) and, for the humour, "Cyrop." passim.
[23] See Cobet, "Pros. Xen." p. 59. Cf. "Mem." I. iii. 8.
[24] Or, "for that they reveal his splendour to me."
Yes, and herein also have we, the beautiful,[25] just claim to boast.
The strong man may by dint of toil obtain good things; the brave, by
danger boldly faced, and the wise by eloquence of speech; but to the
beautiful alone it is given to achieve all ends in absolute
quiescence. To take myself as an example. I know that riches are a
The Symposium |
