Acrostic

“ In cryptic fashion the poet thus registers a vow of vengeance on the Philistines. Both kinds of acrostic occur side by side in the Psalms. Psalm cx., an acrostic of the same kind as David’s elegy, is followed by Psalms cxi. cxii., which are alphabetical acrostics, like the Lamentations. Such artifices are not in themselves greater clogs on poetic expression than the excessive alliteration of old Saxon verse or the strict rhymes of modern lyrics. (Alliteration, both initial and internal, is common in Lamentations.) ”

“ An acrostic is a play upon spelling, as a pun is upon sound; and in both cases the complication is too slight for real humour. They are rather to be considered as ingenious works of fancy. The first specimens are those in the Psalms—twelve of which have twenty-two verses beginning with the twenty- [Pg 93] two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The 119th Psalm is a curious specimen of this conceit ”

“ If there be an Archetype of eloquence in nature, ‘one should be apt enough, as the Bishop says, to conclude, that when the Author of nature condescended to inspire one of these plastic performances of human art, he would make it by the exactest pattern of the Archetype [161] .’ Or, whatever you and I and the Bishop might conclude, assure yourself that the objectors to inspired scripture will infallibly draw that conclusion. ”

“ Henceforth, with occasional intervals, during which he kept a bookseller's shop, sold quack medicines, or was locked up by the authorities for his nomadic practices, Love continued to make a livelihood by his rhymes, doing a large business in acrostics and hymns, which he sold for one halfpenny each. ”

“ You are very far from the Arcadian condition, in which I meet people here at every step. You are intricate; you are like an orchid, one stem of which has a flower in the form of a butterfly, while the next seems like a death's head. ”

“ Lewellin.—"It appears, from the tone and style of your Prayer-book, that the persons, when receiving the mysterious efficacy of your sacraments, are just as passive, in one sense, as a piece of marble is under the chisel of the sculptor. ”

“ Fragments from the Song to the Sun
"The Fragments from the Song to the Sun" contain some of the noblest lines of Palamas' poetry. We cannot have a complete understanding of the symbolism with which this part of Life Immovable is filled. For, after all, from the great hymn to the light-god, we have here only fragments. But these fragments remind one of the gold-stained ruins of the Akropolis against the bright Attic sky. Throughout, we are aware of a striking duality. ”

“ ACIS. I am no great judge of sculpture. Art is not my line. What is wrong with the busts?
ECRASIA. Wrong with them! Instead of being ideally beautiful nymphs and youths, they are horribly realistic studies of—but I really cannot bring my lips to utter it.
The Newly Born, full of curiosity, runs to the temple, and peeps in. ACIS. Oh, stow it, Ecrasia. Your lips are not so squeamish as all that. Studies of what?
THE NEWLY BORN [from the temple steps] Ancients.
ACIS [surprised but not scandalized] Ancients!
ECRASIA. Yes, ancients. ”

“ The shape—the divine idea of that shape—the swelling muscle or the dreamy limb, strong sinew or curve of bust, Aphrodite or Hercules, it is the same. That I may have the soul-life, the soul-nature, let divine beauty bring to me divine soul. Swart Nubian, white Greek, delicate Italian, massive Scandinavian, in all the exquisite pleasure the form gave, and gives, to me immediately becomes intense prayer. ”

“ Chorus.
Woman, home-watcher for thy lord who came
But now from war, didst thou his couch defile
And for the chief himself devise this doom?
Ægisthus.
Bold words again! but they shall end in tears.
The very converse, thine, of Orpheus' tongue:
He roused and led in ecstasy of joy
All things that heard his voice melodious;
But thou as with the futile cry of curs
Wilt draw men wrathfully upon thee. Peace!
Or strong subjection soon shall tame thy tongue.
Chorus. ”

“ But what is perhaps most remarkable of all about an orchid is that this marvel of colour and form and of texture of fabric unfolds itself from within a most ungainly, unsightly, unlikely-looking tuber. ”

“ But up there, in the azure, above the crystal, are the angels; many a time has the vault opened, and, in a long trail of light, the saints have appeared more radiant than molten silver, suddenly visible, then all at once vanished. ”

“ The engraving was becoming to me the shrine of God manifest in the flesh, and I understood the growth of idolatry. The visible symbol is at first a symbol and nothing more; it assists thought; it stirs passion. ”

“ Her, sad Orcus, down below."
Ever as I sang, the veil was uplifted; ever as I sang, the signs of life grew; till, when the eyes dawned upon me, it was with that sunrise of splendour which my feeble song attempted to re-imbody. ”

“ He who conceives a tragedy puts into a crucible a great quantity, so to say, of impressions: the expressions themselves, conceived on other occasions, are fused together with the new in a single mass, in the same way as we can cast into a smelting furnace formless pieces of bronze and most precious statuettes. Those most precious statuettes must be melted in the same way as the formless bits of bronze, before there can be a new statue. ”

“ The solitary instance of an orchid hung up by a string in a conservatory on a piece of bark, ought to be sufficient at once to dispel for ever this strange illusion—if people ever thought; but of course they don't think—I mean Other People. ”

“ As says Helvetius: “. . . the essences of metals are hidden in their outward bodies, as the kernel is hidden in the nut. Every earthly body, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, is the habitation and terrestrial abode of that celestial spirit, or influence, which is its principle of life or growth. The secret of Alchemy is the destruction of the body, which enables the Artist to get at, and utilise for his own purposes, the living soul.” ”

“ But this is mild, indeed, compared to some later exorcisms, as when the ritual runs: "All the people shall rise, and the priest, turning toward the clouds, shall pronounce these words: 'I exorcise ye, accursed demons, who have dared to use, for the accomplishment of your iniquity, those powers of Nature by which God in divers ways worketh good to mortals; who stir up winds, gather vapors, form clouds, and condense them into hail. ”

“ But who can give a soul to an image, or make a stone, or metal, or clay, or wood, or wax, or paper to live? Certainly no man whatever; for this arcanum doth enter into an artist of a stiff neck; he only hath it who transcends the progress of angels and comes to the very Archtype himself. ”

“ Crack the pure crystal to heaven's bow allied.
A hailstone's mortal to the dove's frail frame.
And far more delicate than trembling dove,
Or crystal prized, or flower in beauty bowed,
Is the poor gifted artist's heart of love. ”

“ With this word the coffin salutes the cradle. It is taken from the lips of the dead. Orthodoxy is a shroud—heresy is a banner. Orthodoxy is an epitaph—heresy is a prophecy. Orthodoxy is a cloud, a fog, a mist—heresy the star shining forever above the child of truth. ”

“ There will only be a temporary separation of parts—the spiritual from the material. The body will moulder away to its original elements and remain in that condition until animated and reconstructed again by the voice of the Arch-Angel and the trump of God. ”

“ The Roman Orcus was in the bowels of the earth, and when the ‘lapis manalis,’ the stone that closed the mouth of the world below, was moved away on certain solemn days, the ghosts of the dead came up to the world above, and partook of the offerings of their friends. ”

“ We know that “where no ox is the crib is clean, but much strength is in the labor of the ox.” Truth has to be looked at in the light of the Word, and not viewed through the weakness of the creature, so that no failure in the instrument can justify the rejection of that which God has revealed. ”

“ Then the Alchymist coming, destroys this metalline body, kills and prepares it by Art, but that metallick corporeal Spirit makes apparently conspicuous, another more noble and much more perfect body, whether it be the Sun or Moon; then both the metallick Spirit and Body being perfectly united, are free and safe from Corruption by the Element of Fire. ”

“ A very coarse imitation of the human form on canvas, or in wax-work,—a coarse sketch in colors of a landscape, in which imitation is all that is attempted,—these things give to unpractised eyes, to the uncultured, who do not ask a fine spiritual delight, almost as much pleasure as a statue of Canova or a picture of Titian. ”

“ Sculpture, to put the matter in general terms, conceives the astounding project of making Spirit imagine itself in an exclusively material medium, and so shape this external medium that it is presented to itself in such and recognizes the presentment to be the objective form adequate to its ideal substance. ”

“ In all the crystallisations there is one ‘momentum’ of formation—the centre, from which all the parts emanate perfectly well-balanced and complete in themselves. The elements of which all artistic works, whether natural or produced by men, are composed, are the straight line and the waving line. With these elements we can obtain the three principal conditions of every work of art—symmetry, proportion, and direction. ”

“ Similarly, the word 'Sculpture,'—though in ultimate accuracy it is to be limited to the development of form in hard substances by cutting away portions of their mass—in broad definition, must be held to signify the reduction of any shapeless mass of solid matter into an intended shape, whatever the consistence of the substance, or nature of the instrument employed ”

“ ELECTRA. I found this lock of hair upon the tomb.
CHORUS. Who was it, man or maid, that laid it there?
ELECTRA. This to divine were not so difficult.
CHORUS. Old as I am on thy young lips I hang.
ELECTRA. From what head could the lock be cut but mine?
CHORUS. They that should offer mourning locks are foes.
ELECTRA. This lock of hair is wondrous like in hue.
CHORUS. Like to whose hair? 'Tis this I long to learn.
ELECTRA. Like, passing like, to hers that speaks to thee.
CHORUS. Think'st thou Orestes sent it secretly?
ELECTRA. The lock in hue is like no hair but his. ”

“ So in the Crucifixion it is not so much the aspect of the groups, the pathos of the faces or gestures, that tells, but it is the mystery and [Pg 257] gloom in which the whole scene is muffled, the atmosphere into which we are absorbed, the sense of livid terror conveyed by the brooding light and shadow, that makes us feel how different the rendering is from any other. ”

“ I know very well that the Escorial had a serious and religious aim; but gravity is not dryness, melancholy is not marasm, meditation is not ennui, and beauty of forms can always be happily wedded to elevation of ideas. ”

“ Even old observers, who again and again return to the contemplation of this remarkable orb, confess they do so unwearyingly, because they find no parallel elsewhere; the beautifully curving outline of the symmetrical image always retains its interest, and refreshes them with thoughts of the Divine Architect who framed it! ”

“ On the Acropolis, and heard the lore
Of Pallas echoing through the Academe,
Thou wert a savage with thy hunter bow
And feathery cincture. Now in dust she sits,
Weary and sad of heart. She may not skill to read
Her Father's book. ”

“ Of genuine crystals, pure as those that pave
The azure brooks where Dian joys to lave
Her spotless limbs; and ventured to explore
Dim shades—for reliques, upon Lethe's shore,
Cast up at random by the sullen wave. ”

“ But sometimes there are mighty adumbrations which cover even the superior seraphim from above their wing-tips, and make unfamiliar twilight in heaven. And sometimes there is an echo which fills the empyrean, and hushes the archangelic harps in the midst of their praising of God. ”

“ Here we find a heavy and simple emphasis, a great clarity both of figure construction and of composition. For his personal awkwardness, patience and quietism his comrades mockingly called him the Ox. It took character to play the ox amid the febrile sprightliness of the Catholic Reaction. His gravity is marked also in his color. He forsakes the old decorative conventions of the Renaissance and works in olive and silvery tones which suggest in a generalizing way the coolness and freshness of nature. ”

“ Revering as a shrine thy father's grave.
Electra:
Say then thy say, as thou his tomb reverest.
Leader of the Chorus:
Speak solemn words to them that love, and pour.
Electra:
And of his kin whom dare I name as kind?
Leader of the Chorus:
Thyself; and next, whoe'er Aegisthus scorns.
Electra:
Then 'tis myself and thou, my prayer must name.
Leader of the Chorus:
Whoe'er they be, 'tis thine to know and name them.
Electra:
Is there no other we may claim as ours?
Leader of the Chorus:
Think of Orestes, though far-off he be. ”

“ It had, however, been discovered by means of exorcisms that a new compact, of which the symbol and token was a bunch of roses, had been concluded, the symbol and token of the first having been three black thorns. ”

“ There, too, was a gaping hole—but not without its message. Etched in the metal frame, in the same iridescent purple glow, were two words. Two enigmatic words to reverberate throughout the world, burned in by some watcher—some keeper—some warden. ”

“ Silk Damask Orphrey Web; ground, crimson; pattern, the Resurrection. Venetian, 16th century. 1 foot 4 inches by 83⁄4 inches.
One of those numerous examples of woven orphrey-work for vestments such as copes and chasubles. Our Lord is figured as uprising from the grave, treading upon clouds, giving, with His right hand, a blessing to the world, and holding the triumphal banner in the left. Glory streams from His person, and a wreath of Cherubim surrounds Him ”