| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: creating them. Can we wonder that few of them 'come sweetly from nature,'
while ten thousand reviewers (mala murioi) are engaged in dissecting them?
Young men, like Phaedrus, are enamoured of their own literary clique and
have but a feeble sympathy with the master-minds of former ages. They
recognize 'a POETICAL necessity in the writings of their favourite author,
even when he boldly wrote off just what came in his head.' They are
beginning to think that Art is enough, just at the time when Art is about
to disappear from the world. And would not a great painter, such as
Michael Angelo, or a great poet, such as Shakespeare, returning to earth,
'courteously rebuke' us--would he not say that we are putting 'in the place
of Art the preliminaries of Art,' confusing Art the expression of mind and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: downstairs which I have hired for two sous an hour; it will hold
all our goods; if you like, we will try to find lodgings
together, since we are both turned out of this. It is not the
earthly paradise, when all is said and done.'
" 'I know that, my good Bourgeat,' said I. 'But I am in a great
fix. I have a trunk downstairs with a hundred francs' worth of
linen in it, out of which I could pay the landlord and all I owe
to the porter, and I have not a hundred sous.'
" 'Pooh! I have a few dibs,' replied Bourgeat joyfully, and he
pulled out a greasy old leather purse. 'Keep your linen.'
"Bourgeat paid up my arrears and his own, and settled with the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: sed hominibus solere esse amicum. Cornelii Nepotis Attici Vitae,
c. ix.
v. 78. Whatever is contain'd.] Every other thing comprised
within the lunar heaven, which, being the lowest of all, has the
smallest circle.
v. 93. A blessed dame.] The divine mercy.
v. 97. Lucia.] The enlightening grace of heaven.
v. 124. Three maids.] The divine mercy, Lucia, and Beatrice.
v. 127. As florets.] This simile is well translated by
Chaucer--
But right as floures through the cold of night
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
