| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter
his oracles. Many are the noble words in which poets speak concerning the
actions of men; but like yourself when speaking about Homer, they do not
speak of them by any rules of art: they are simply inspired to utter that
to which the Muse impels them, and that only; and when inspired, one of
them will make dithyrambs, another hymns of praise, another choral strains,
another epic or iambic verses--and he who is good at one is not good at any
other kind of verse: for not by art does the poet sing, but by power
divine. Had he learned by rules of art, he would have known how to speak
not of one theme only, but of all; and therefore God takes away the minds
of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: way we want to go, that way seems always barred, and
we only bump against blind walls without making any progress.
But that uncomfortable state of affairs arises from ourselves.
Once we have passed a certain barrier, which at present looks
so frowning and impossible, but which fades into nothing
immediately we have passed it--once we have found the open
secret of identity--then the way is indeed open in every
direction.
The world in which we live--the world into which we are
tumbled as children at the first onset of self-consciousness--
denies this great fact of unity. It is a world in which the
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: is hardly less dependent on them than Fafnir; the War-Lord visits
their work, acclaims them in stirring speeches, and casts down
their enemies; whilst Loki makes commercial treaties for them and
subjects all his diplomacy to their approval.
The end cannot come until Siegfried learns A1beric's trade and
shoulders Alberic's burden. Not having as yet done so, he is
still completely mastered by Alberic. He does not even rebel
against him except when he is too stupid and ignorant, or too
romantically impracticable, to see that Alberic's work, like
Wotan's work and Loki's work, is necessary work, and that
therefore Alberic can never be superseded by a warrior, but only
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