| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: for a similar reason some rhapsodes, like Ion, are the interpreters of
single poets.
Ion is delighted at the notion of being inspired, and acknowledges that he
is beside himself when he is performing;--his eyes rain tears and his hair
stands on end. Socrates is of opinion that a man must be mad who behaves
in this way at a festival when he is surrounded by his friends and there is
nothing to trouble him. Ion is confident that Socrates would never think
him mad if he could only hear his embellishments of Homer. Socrates asks
whether he can speak well about everything in Homer. 'Yes, indeed he can.'
'What about things of which he has no knowledge?' Ion answers that he can
interpret anything in Homer. But, rejoins Socrates, when Homer speaks of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: wished these latter (though socially so well-provided for) to
have the "immense privilege" of knowing the Hickses. And thus
it happened that when October gales necessitated laying up the
Ibis, the Hickses, finding again in Rome the august travellers
from whom they had parted the previous month in Athens, also
found their visiting-list enlarged by all that the capital
contained of fashion.
It was true enough, as Lansing had not failed to note, that the
Princess Mother adored prehistoric art, and Russian music, and
the paintings of Gauguin and Matisse; but she also, and with a
beaming unconsciousness of perspective, adored large pearls and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: her, would deny her little. Her attitude to them
was alternately that of the petted child and the
chosen companion. As her mother was indisposed,
she occupied her place at the table, presiding with
dignity, guiding the conversation, revealing the rare
gift of making everyone appear at his best. In the
evening she had sometimes danced alone for a few
moments, but more often with her Russian guests,
and readily learning the English country dances
they were anxious to teach. Rezanov would have
found the gay informality of these evenings delight-
Rezanov |
