| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: in the primitive forests of the Amazon, the most gigantic
wilderness on the earth, which he has so eloquently described.
The geographer Guyot, himself a European, goes farther--farther
than I am ready to follow him; yet not when he says: "As the
plant is made for the animal, as the vegetable world is made for
the animal world, America is made for the man of the Old
World.... The man of the Old World sets out upon his way. Leaving
the highlands of Asia, he descends from station to station
towards Europe. Each of his steps is marked by a new civilization
superior to the preceding, by a greater power of development.
Arrived at the Atlantic, he pauses on the shore of this unknown
Walking |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: cambrick handkerchief to her left eye, as she approach'd the door of my
uncle Toby's sentry-box--a mote--or sand--or something--I know not what,
has got into this eye of mine--do look into it--it is not in the white--
In saying which, Mrs. Wadman edged herself close in beside my uncle Toby,
and squeezing herself down upon the corner of his bench, she gave him an
opportunity of doing it without rising up--Do look into it--said she.
Honest soul! thou didst look into it with as much innocency of heart, as
ever child look'd into a raree-shew-box; and 'twere as much a sin to have
hurt thee.
--If a man will be peeping of his own accord into things of that nature--
I've nothing to say to it--
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: our art is of the moon and plays with shadows, while Greek art is
of the sun and deals directly with things. I feel sure that in
elemental forces there is purification, and I want to go back to
them and live in their presence.
Of course to one so modern as I am, 'Enfant de mon siecle,' merely
to look at the world will be always lovely. I tremble with
pleasure when I think that on the very day of my leaving prison
both the laburnum and the lilac will be blooming in the gardens,
and that I shall see the wind stir into restless beauty the swaying
gold of the one, and make the other toss the pale purple of its
plumes, so that all the air shall be Arabia for me. Linnaeus fell
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