| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: blinded his son. {121} I will now, however, point out to you the
lie of the land, and you will then perhaps believe me. This is
the haven of the old merman Phorcys, and here is the olive tree
that grows at the head of it; [near it is the cave sacred to the
Naiads;] {122} here too is the overarching cavern in which you
have offered many an acceptable hecatomb to the nymphs, and this
is the wooded mountain Neritum."
As she spoke the goddess dispersed the mist and the land
appeared. Then Ulysses rejoiced at finding himself again in his
own land, and kissed the bounteous soil; he lifted up his hands
and prayed to the nymphs, saying, "Naiad nymphs, daughters of
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: illuminated by the oblique rays of the setting sun. At a mile and a
half from Andernach the two friends walked their horses in silence, as
if no war were devastating this beautiful land, while they followed a
path made for the goats across the lofty walls of bluish granite
between which foams the Rhine. Presently they descended by one of the
declivities of the gorge, at the foot of which is placed the little
town, seated coquettishly on the banks of the river and offering a
convenient port to mariners.
"Germany is a beautiful country!" cried one of the two young men, who
was named Prosper Magnan, at the moment when he caught sight of the
painted houses of Andernach, pressed together like eggs in a basket,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: another,--is precisely in this, that one feels more than another.
If we were sponges, perhaps sensation might not be easily got for
us; if we were earth-worms, liable at every instant to be cut in two
by the spade, perhaps too much sensation might not be good for us.
But being human creatures, IT IS good for us; nay, we are only human
in so far as we are sensitive, and our honour is precisely in
proportion to our passion.
You know I said of that great and pure society of the Dead, that it
would allow "no vain or vulgar person to enter there." What do you
think I meant by a "vulgar" person? What do you yourselves mean by
"vulgarity"? You will find it a fruitful subject of thought; but,
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