DIONYSIAN OR APOLLONIAN?


Formerly, when I believed that I was both humble and a wanderer, I was
convinced that I was a Dionysian. I was impelled toward turbulence, the
dynamic, the theatric. Naturally, I was an anarchist. Am I today? I
believe I still am. In those days I used to enthuse about the future,
and I hated the past.

Little by little, this turbulence has calmed down--perhaps it was never
very great. Little by little I have come to realize that if following
Dionysus induces the will to bound and leap, devotion to Apollo has a
tendency to throw the mind back until it rests upon the harmony of
eternal form. There is great attraction in both gods.




EPICURI DE GREGE PORCUM


I am also a swine of the herd of Epicurus; I, too, wax eloquent over
this ancient philosopher, who conversed with his pupils in his garden.
The very epithet of Horace, upon detaching himself from the Epicureans,
"_Epicuri de grege porcum_," is full of charm.

All noble minds have hymned Epicurus. "Hail Epicurus, thou honour of
Greece!" Lucretius exclaims in the third book of his poem.