| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: di gente, ch'io non avrei mai creduto
che morte tanta n'avesse disfatta.
64. Cf. INFERNO, iv. 25-7:
Quivi, secondo che per ascoltare,
non avea pianto, ma' che di sospiri,
che l'aura eterna facevan tremare.
68. A phenomenon which I have often noticed.
74. Cf. the Dirge in Webster's _White Devil_ . 76.
_V._ Baudelaire, Preface to _Fleurs du Mal_.
II. A GAME OF CHESS
77. Cf. _Antony and Cleopatra_, II. ii. 190.
The Waste Land |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: Wisdom? Here on earth, during their lifetime, such spirits remain
pure; they neither see, nor think, nor speak like other men. There are
two ways by which perception comes,--one internal, the other external.
Man is wholly external, the Angelic Spirit wholly internal. The Spirit
goes to the depth of Numbers, possesses a full sense of them, knows
their significances. It controls Motion, and by reason of its ubiquity
it shares in all things. 'An Angel,' says Swedenborg, 'is ever present
to a man when desired' ('Angelic Wisdom'); for the Angel has the gift
of detaching himself from his body, and he sees into heaven as the
prophets and as Swedenborg himself saw into it. 'In this state,'
writes Swedenborg ('True Religion,' 136), 'the spirit of a man may
Seraphita |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: "But sometimes it may seem long in the passing, however swift,"
said Lawton, "though I suppose it has not to you. You look just
the same," he added, regarding her admiringly.
Eudora flushed a little. "I must be changed," she murmured.
"Not a bit. I would have known you anywhere. But I--"
"I knew you the minute you spoke."
"Did you?" he asked, eagerly. "I was afraid I had grown so stout
you would not remember me at all. Queer how a man will grow
stout. I am not such a big eater, either, and I have worked
hard, and--well, I might have been worse off, but I must say I
have seen men who seemed to me happier, though I have made the
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