| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: the only remarkable adventure of MR. TATLER'S brief
existence; unless we consider as such a silly Chaldee
manuscript in imitation of BLACKWOOD, and a letter of reproof
from a divinity student on the impiety of the same dull
effusion. He laments the near approach of his end in
pathetic terms. 'How shall we summon up sufficient courage,'
says he, 'to look for the last time on our beloved little
devil and his inestimable proof-sheet? How shall we be able
to pass No. 14 Infirmary Street and feel that all its
attractions are over? How shall we bid farewell for ever to
that excellent man, with the long greatcoat, wooden leg and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: in riddles after the fashion of his tribe. For all poetry has by nature an
enigmatical character, and it is by no means everybody who can interpret
it. And if, moreover, the spirit of poetry happen to seize on a man who is
of a begrudging temper and does not care to manifest his wisdom but keeps
it to himself as far as he can, it does indeed require an almost superhuman
wisdom to discover what the poet would be at. You surely do not suppose
that Homer, the wisest and most divine of poets, was unaware of the
impossibility of knowing a thing badly: for it was no less a person than
he who said of Margites that 'he knew many things, but knew them all
badly.' The solution of the riddle is this, I imagine:--By 'badly' Homer
meant 'bad' and 'knew' stands for 'to know.' Put the words together;--the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: favourite diversion. I suffered her to enjoy it a while; then I
expostulated: deriding and ridiculing all Mr. Heathcliff's
assertions about his son, as if I were certain she would coincide.
Alas! I hadn't skill to counteract the effect his account had
produced: it was just what he intended.
'You may be right, Ellen,' she answered; 'but I shall never feel at
ease till I know. And I must tell Linton it is not my fault that I
don't write, and convince him that I shall not change.'
What use were anger and protestations against her silly credulity?
We parted that night - hostile; but next day beheld me on the road
to Wuthering Heights, by the side of my wilful young mistress's
Wuthering Heights |
