| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: until he is bathed in sweat, and when he begins to prance and show his
airs to fine effect, you promptly dismount and take off the bit, you
may rely upon it he will of his own accord another time break into the
same prancing action. Such are the horses on which gods and heroes
ride, as represented by the artist. The majesty of men themselves is
best discovered in the graceful handling of such animals.[8] A horse
so prancing is indeed a thing of beauty, a wonder and a marvel;
riveting the gaze of all who see him, young alike and graybeards. They
will never turn their backs, I venture to predict, or weary of their
gazing so long as he continues to display his splendid action.
[6] Or, "by aids and signs," as we say.
On Horsemanship |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: feudal lord and proper master and protector the bishop,
she had suffered no loss, for the said bishop could have
got a dispensation making him, for temporary con-
veniency, eligible to the exercise of his said right, and
thus would she have kept all she had. Whereas, fail-
ing in her first duty, she hath by that failure failed in
all; for whoso, clinging to a rope, severeth it above
his hands, must fall; it being no defense to claim that
the rest of the rope is sound, neither any deliverance
from his peril, as he shall find. Pardy, the woman's
case is rotten at the source. It is the decree of the
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: dominating character thereof into prominence.
We should overrun our limits if we were to follow out the
admirable discussion in which M. Taine extends this definition to
architecture and music. These closely allied arts are
distinguished from poetry, painting, and sculpture, by appealing
far less directly to the intelligence, and far more exclusively
to the emotions. Yet these arts likewise aim, by bringing into
prominence certain relations of symmetry in form as perceived by
the eye, or in aerial vibrations as perceived by the ear, to
excite in us the states of feeling with which these species of
symmetry are by subtle laws of association connected. They, too,
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
