| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: she not be amazed, and ask 'On what, then, does the youth rely?' And if we
replied: He relies on his beauty, and stature, and birth, and mental
endowments, she would think that we were mad, Alcibiades, when she compared
the advantages which you possess with those of her own people. And I
believe that even Lampido, the daughter of Leotychides, the wife of
Archidamus and mother of Agis, all of whom were kings, would have the same
feeling; if, in your present uneducated state, you were to turn your
thoughts against her son, she too would be equally astonished. But how
disgraceful, that we should not have as high a notion of what is required
in us as our enemies' wives and mothers have of the qualities which are
required in their assailants! O my friend, be persuaded by me, and hear
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from McTeague by Frank Norris: finishing with a great flourish of violins. A short pause
followed. Then the orchestra played a quick-step strain,
and the curtain rose on an interior furnished with two red
chairs and a green sofa. A girl in a short blue dress and
black stockings entered in a hurry and began to dust the two
chairs. She was in a great temper, talking very fast,
disclaiming against the "new lodger." It appeared that this
latter never paid his rent; that he was given to late hours.
Then she came down to the footlights and began to sing in a
tremendous voice, hoarse and flat, almost like a man's. The
chorus, of a feeble originality, ran:
McTeague |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: II. A GAME OF CHESS
77. Cf. _Antony and Cleopatra_, II. ii. 190.
92. Laquearia. _V. Aeneid_, I. 726:
dependent lychni laquearibus aureis incensi, et noctem flammis
funalia vincunt.
98. Sylvan scene. _V._ Milton, _Paradise Lost_, iv. 140.
99. _V._ Ovid, METAMORPHOSES, vi, Philomela.
100. Cf. Part III, 1. 204.
115. Cf. Part III, 1. 195.
118. Cf. Webster: 'Is the wind in that door still?'
126. Cf. Part I, l. 37, 48.
The Waste Land |
