| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: death for some just reason rather than unjustly?" and as he spoke he
smiled tenderly.[54]
[54] See Plat. "Phaed." 89 B, where a similar action is attributed to
Socrates in the case of Phaedo (his beloved disciple). "He stroked
my head and pressed the hair upon my neck--he had a way of playing
with my air; and then he said: 'To-morrow, Phaedo, I suppose that
these fair locks of yours will be severed.'"
It is also said that, seeing Anytus[55] pass by, Socrates remarked:
"How proudly the great man steps; he thinks, no doubt, he has
performed some great and noble deed in putting me to death, and all
because, seeing him deemed worthy of the highest honours of the state,
The Apology |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: things, is the proper aim of Art. But of this I think I have
spoken at sufficient length. And now let us go out on the terrace,
where 'droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,' while the
evening star 'washes the dusk with silver.' At twilight nature
becomes a wonderfully suggestive effect, and is not without
loveliness, though perhaps its chief use is to illustrate
quotations from the poets. Come! We have talked long enough.
PEN, PENCIL AND POISON - A STUDY IN GREEN
It has constantly been made a subject of reproach against artists
and men of letters that they are lacking in wholeness and
completeness of nature. As a rule this must necessarily be so.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: "/You!/ One of Servin's best pupils, and you don't know Watteau?"
cried the President.
"I know Gerard and David and Gros and Griodet, and M. de Forbin and M.
Turpin de Crisse--"
"You ought--"
"Ought what, sir?" demanded the lady, gazing at her husband with the
air of a Queen of Sheba.
"To know a Watteau when you see it, my dear. Watteau is very much in
fashion," answered the President with meekness, that told plainly how
much he owed to his wife.
This conversation took place a few days before that night of first
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