| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: satisfy something of your soul-hunger."
"Not very wise!" I repeated.
"No, Humphrey. I think that Bastin, who in many ways is so
stupid, has more true wisdom than I have, because he can believe
and accept without question. After all, the wisdom of my people
is all of the universe and its wonders. What you think magic is
not magic; it is only gathered knowledge and the finding out of
secrets. Bickley will tell you the same, although as yet he does
not believe that the mind of man can stretch so far."
"You mean that your wisdom has in it nothing of the spirit?"
"Yes, Humphrey, that is what I mean. I do not even know if
When the World Shook |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: one of those seemingly small matters which imply such great
development of thought and such widespread trouble of the soul, that
only the bare fact can be recorded; the interpretation of it must be
left to the fancy of each individual mind. One day, when M. de Nueil
had been shooting over the lands of Manerville and Valleroy, he
crossed Mme. de Beauseant's park on his way home, summoned Jacques,
and when the man came, asked him, "Whether the Marquise was as fond of
game as ever?"
Jacques answering in the affirmative, Gaston offered him a good round
sum (accompanied by plenty of specious reasoning) for a very little
service. Would he set aside for the Marquise the game that the Count
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: of gymnastic skill, yet are they but trials of bodily excellence, but
this contest for the seniority is of a higher sort--it is an ordeal of
the soul itself. In proportion, therefore, as the soul is worthier
than the body, so must these contests of the soul appeal to a stronger
enthusiasm than their bodily antitypes.
[1] Reading {protheis}. See Plut. "Lycurg." 26 (Clough. i. 118);
Aristot. "Pol." ii. 9, 25.
[2] Or, "seniory," or "senate," or "board of elders"; lit. "the
Gerontia."
[3] Or, "the old age of the good. Yet this he did when he made . . .
since he contrived," etc.
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