| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: upon that fairest the Imperial favor was bestowed. But after Genso Kotei
had seen Yokihi (whom the Chinese call Yang-Kwei-Fei), he would not suffer
the butterflies to choose for him,-- which was unlucky, as Yokihi got him
into serious trouble... Again, I should like to know more about the
experience of that Chinese scholar, celebrated in Japan under the name
Soshu, who dreamed that he was a butterfly, and had all the sensations of a
butterfly in that dream. For his spirit had really been wandering about in
the shape of a butterfly; and, when he awoke, the memories and the feelings
of butterfly existence remained so vivid in his mind that he could not act
like a human being... Finally I should like to know the text of a certain
Chinese official recognition of sundry butterflies as the spirits of an
Kwaidan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: possesses nineteen large towns. Bokhara, surrounded by a
wall measuring more than eight English miles, and flanked
with towers, a glorious city, made illustrious by Avicenna
and other learned men of the tenth century, is regarded as
the center of Mussulman science, and ranks among the
most celebrated cities of Central Asia. Samarcand, which
contains the tomb of Tamerlane and the famous palace
where the blue stone is kept on which each new khan must
seat himself on his accession, is defended by a very strong
citadel. Karschi, with its triple cordon, situated in an
oasis, surrounded by a marsh peopled with tortoises and
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: either the general ignorance of the community, or the terror and
greed for power of an ecclesiastical or governmental class. Of
course, we have to a very great extent got rid of any attempt on
the part of the community, or the Church, or the Government, to
interfere with the individualism of speculative thought, but the
attempt to interfere with the individualism of imaginative art
still lingers. In fact, it does more than linger; it is
aggressive, offensive, and brutalising.
In England, the arts that have escaped best are the arts in which
the public take no interest. Poetry is an instance of what I mean.
We have been able to have fine poetry in England because the public
|
