| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: defences, whether dresses, or arms, or walls, or (5) with the art of making
ornaments, whether pictures or other playthings, as they may be fitly
called, for they have no serious use. Then (6) there are the arts which
furnish gold, silver, wood, bark, and other materials, which should have
been put first; these, again, have no concern with the kingly science; any
more than the arts (7) which provide food and nourishment for the human
body, and which furnish occupation to the husbandman, huntsman, doctor,
cook, and the like, but not to the king or statesman. Further, there are
small things, such as coins, seals, stamps, which may with a little
violence be comprehended in one of the above-mentioned classes. Thus they
will embrace every species of property with the exception of animals,--but
Statesman |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: somewhat different from literary criticism. This much they have
in common, that before the one and the other the answering back,
as a general rule, does not pay.
Yes, you find criticism at sea, and even appreciation--I tell you
everything is to be found on salt water--criticism generally
impromptu, and always viva voce, which is the outward, obvious
difference from the literary operation of that kind, with
consequent freshness and vigour which may be lacking in the
printed word. With appreciation, which comes at the end, when
the critic and the criticised are about to part, it is otherwise.
The sea appreciation of one's humble talents has the permanency
Some Reminiscences |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft: Then dim
and misty in the darkling north before him he glimpsed a terrible
thing. He had thought it for some moments a range of black mountains,
but now he saw it was something more. The phosphorescence of the
brooding clouds shewed it plainly, and even silhouetted parts
of it as vapours glowed behind. How distant it was he could not
tell, but it must have been very far. It was thousands of feet
high, stretching in a great concave arc from the grey impassable
peaks to the unimagined westward spaces, and had once indeed been
a ridge of mighty onyx hills. But now these hills were hills no
more, for some hand greater than man's had touched them. Silent
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath |
