| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: Yet perhaps the lives of thinkers, as they are stiller and deeper, are also
happier than the lives of those who are more in the public eye. They have
the promise of the future, though they are regarded as dreamers and
visionaries by their own contemporaries. And when they are no longer here,
those who would have been ashamed of them during their lives claim kindred
with them, and are proud to be called by their names. (Compare Thucyd.)
Who is the true poet?
Plato expels the poets from his Republic because they are allied to sense;
because they stimulate the emotions; because they are thrice removed from
the ideal truth. And in a similar spirit he declares in the Gorgias that
the stately muse of tragedy is a votary of pleasure and not of truth. In
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: "Brown clothes?" he said. "And fairish?"
"A little like yourself, sir--in the dark. The ostler, sir, Jim
Duke--"
Bechamel laughed awry. Then, with infinite fervour, he said--But
let us put in blank cartridge--he said, "--- ---!"
"I might have thought!"
He flung himself into the armchair.
"Damn her," said Bechamel, for all the world like a common man.
"I'll chuck this infernal business! They've gone, eigh?"
"Yessir."
Well, let 'em GO," said Bechamel, making a memorable saying. "Let
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: Giovanni/; but there is this immense difference: in Isabella we have
the expression of the noblest faith, a true love that will save
Robert, for he scornfully rejects the infernal powers bestowed on him,
while Don Giovanni persists in his unbelief. Moreover, that particular
fault is common to every composer who has written a /finale/ since
Mozart. The /finale/ to /Don Giovanni/ is one of those classic forms
that are invented once for all.
"At last religion wins the day, uplifting the voice that governs
worlds, that invites all sorrow to come for consolation, all
repentance to be forgiven and helped.
"The whole house was stirred by the chorus:
Gambara |
