| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: the other rising above them and contemplating with religious awe the forms
of justice, temperance, holiness, yet finding them also 'too dazzling
bright for mortal eye,' and shrinking from them in amazement. The
opposition between these two kinds of love may be compared to the
opposition between the flesh and the spirit in the Epistles of St. Paul.
It would be unmeaning to suppose that Plato, in describing the spiritual
combat, in which the rational soul is finally victor and master of both the
steeds, condescends to allow any indulgence of unnatural lusts.
Two other thoughts about love are suggested by this passage. First of all,
love is represented here, as in the Symposium, as one of the great powers
of nature, which takes many forms and two principal ones, having a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Koran: us, so taste ye the torment for that which ye have earned!'
Verily, those who say our signs are lies and are too big with
pride for them; for these the doors of heaven shall not be opened, and
they shall not enter into Paradise until a camel shall pass into a
needle's eye.
It is thus that we reward the sinners; for them is a couch of
hell-fire, with an awning above them! thus do we reward the unjust!
But those who believe and do what is right- we will not oblige a
soul more than its capacity- they are the fellows of Paradise, they
shall dwell therein for aye.
We will strip away what ill feeling is in their breasts- there shall
The Koran |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: 'Buzz-Buzz ' eighteen times?"
"What! Not the one with fair hair?"
"And flat feet? The very one. Junket, her name is. By Curds out
of Season. My mistake. I was thinking of our beagle. Don't
think I'm quite mad. I'm only drunk. You're the wine."
"The Queen is, you mean."
"No, no- you, Alice."
She looked at her wrist-watch.
"Oh, all right," I said. "The Queen's the wine, the play's the
thing. Anything you like. Only I'm tired of play-acting, and I
only want to talk to Alice. Come and let me introduce Pomfret."
The Brother of Daphne |
