| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: you: When you produce the greatest effect upon the audience in the
recitation of some striking passage, such as the apparition of Odysseus
leaping forth on the floor, recognized by the suitors and casting his
arrows at his feet, or the description of Achilles rushing at Hector, or
the sorrows of Andromache, Hecuba, or Priam,--are you in your right mind?
Are you not carried out of yourself, and does not your soul in an ecstasy
seem to be among the persons or places of which you are speaking, whether
they are in Ithaca or in Troy or whatever may be the scene of the poem?
ION: That proof strikes home to me, Socrates. For I must frankly confess
that at the tale of pity my eyes are filled with tears, and when I speak of
horrors, my hair stands on end and my heart throbs.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Georgics by Virgil: Deep-throated triumph.
But if the headlong sun
And moons in order following thou regard,
Ne'er will to-morrow's hour deceive thee, ne'er
Wilt thou be caught by guile of cloudless night.
When first the moon recalls her rallying fires,
If dark the air clipped by her crescent dim,
For folks afield and on the open sea
A mighty rain is brewing; but if her face
With maiden blush she mantle, 'twill be wind,
For wind turns Phoebe still to ruddier gold.
Georgics |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: of the contraction of the muscle called by French writers the _soucilier_
(_corrigator supercilii_), remarks with truth:--"Cette action des
sourciliers est un des symptomes les plus tranches de l'expression des
affections penibles ou concentrees." He then adds that these muscles,
from their attachment and position, are fitted "a resserrer,
a concentrer les principaux traits de la _face_, comme il convient
dans toutes ces passions vraiment oppressives ou profondes, dans ces
affections dont le sentiment semble porter l'organisation a revenir sur
elle-meme, a se contracter et a _s'amoindrir_, comme pour offrir moins
de prise et de surface a des impressions redoutables ou importunes."
He who thinks that remarks of this kind throw any light on the meaning
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
