| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: are lost, but a great intellect, once abused, is a curse to the
earth for ever."
This, then, I meant by saying that the arts must have noble motive.
This also I said respecting them, that they never had prospered, nor
could prosper, but when they had such true purpose, and were devoted
to the proclamation of divine truth or law. And yet I saw also that
they had always failed in this proclamation--that poetry, and
sculpture, and painting, though only great when they strove to teach
us something about the gods, never had taught us anything
trustworthy about the gods, but had always betrayed their trust in
the crisis of it, and, with their powers at the full reach, became
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: "She won't gobble me down; don't be afraid."
"She won't leave you on your knees," said Percy Beaumont.
"What IS the inducement?"
"You talk about proposing: wait till I HAVE proposed,"
Lord Lambeth went on.
"That's right, my dear fellow; think about it," said Percy Beaumont.
"She's a charming girl," pursued his lordship.
"Of course she's a charming girl. I don't know a girl
more charming, intrinsically. But there are other charming
girls nearer home."
"I like her spirit," observed Lord Lambeth, almost as if he were trying
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: I must see him."
"Never!--it would drive him mad!" exclaimed Hepzibah, but with an
irresoluteness sufficiently perceptible to the keen eye of the Judge;
for, without the slightest faith in his good intentions, she knew not
whether there was most to dread in yielding or resistance. "And why
should you wish to see this wretched, broken man, who retains hardly
a fraction of his intellect, and will hide even that from an eye
which has no love in it?"
"He shall see love enough in mine, if that be all!" said the Judge,
with well-grounded confidence in the benignity of his aspect.
"But, Cousin Hepzibah, you confess a great deal, and very much to
House of Seven Gables |
