| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: its low tremulousness gave me no thrill now. I could only make out
the oval of her face, her uncovered throat, the long, white gleam
of her eyes. She was mysterious enough. Her hands were resting on
the arms of the chair. But where was the mysterious and provoking
sensation which was like the perfume of her flower-like youth? I
said quietly:
"I have got your shoe here." She made no sound and I continued:
"You had better give me your foot and I will put it on for you."
She made no movement. I bent low down and groped for her foot
under the flounces of the wrapper. She did not withdraw it and I
put on the shoe, buttoning the instep-strap. It was an inanimate
'Twixt Land & Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: rancor and strife, which came in with the growth of Property
with its greeds and jealousies, and the accentuation of
Self-consciousness with all its vanities and
ambitions.
[1] See for estimates of periods ch. xiv; also, for the
peacefulness of these early peoples, Havelock Ellis on "The
Origin of War," where he says "We do not find the WEAPONS of
warfare or the WOUNDS of warfare among these Palaeolithic remains
. . . it was with civilization that the art of killing developed,
i. e. within the last 10,000 or 12,000 years when Neolithic men
(who became our ancestors) were just arriving."
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: does it now lead me? Am I not indissolubly
engaged, "by every obligation of honour which my
own consent and my father's approbation can give,"
to a man who can never share my affections, and
whom a few days hence it will be criminal for me to
disapprove--to disapprove! would to heaven that
were all--to despise. For, can the most frivolous
manners, actuated by the most depraved heart, meet,
or merit, anything but contempt from every woman
of delicacy and sentiment?
[VAN ROUGH without. Mary!]
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