| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: IMLAC now felt the enthusiastic fit, and was proceeding to
aggrandise his own profession, when then Prince cried out:
"Enough! thou hast convinced me that no human being can ever be a
poet. Proceed with thy narration."
"To be a poet," said Imlac, "is indeed very difficult."
"So difficult," returned the Prince, "that I will at present hear
no more of his labours. Tell me whither you went when you had seen
Persia."
"From Persia," said the poet, "I travelled through Syria, and for
three years resided in Palestine, where I conversed with great
numbers of the northern and western nations of Europe, the nations
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: "That needn't concern you. Get your party in here. Bar the
windows and lock the doors. You'll be safe."
"Stewart! Tell me what you intend to do."
"I won't tell you," he replied, and turned away again.
"But I will know," she said. With a hand on his arm she detained
him. She saw how he halted--felt the shock in him as she touched
him. "Oh, I do know. You mean to fight!"
"Well, Miss Hammond, isn't it about time?" he asked. Evidently he
overcame a violent passion for instant action. There was
weariness, dignity, even reproof in his question. "The fact of
that Mexican's presence here in your house ought to prove to you
The Light of Western Stars |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: to the gross popular appetite as possible. It is a very degrading
position for any body of educated men to be placed in, and I have
no doubt that most of them feel it acutely.
However, let us leave what is really a very sordid side of the
subject, and return to the question of popular control in the
matter of Art, by which I mean Public Opinion dictating to the
artist the form which he is to use, the mode in which he is to use
it, and the materials with which he is to work. I have pointed out
that the arts which have escaped best in England are the arts in
which the public have not been interested. They are, however,
interested in the drama, and as a certain advance has been made in
|
