| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Herland by Charlotte Gilman: the evils of our own beloved land. It was all very well for us to
assume them to be necessary and essential, and to criticize--
strictly among ourselves--their all-too-perfect civilization, but
when it came to telling them about the failures and wastes of our
own, we never could bring ourselves to do it.
Moreover, we sought to avoid too much discussion, and to
press the subject of our approaching marriages.
Jeff was the determined one on this score.
"Of course they haven't any marriage ceremony or service,
but we can make it a sort of Quaker wedding, and have it in the
temple--it is the least we can do for them."
Herland |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: encourage its citizens to put out its faults, and do better than
it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ and
excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington
and Franklin rebels?
One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial
of its authority was the only offense never contemplated by
its government; else, why has it not assigned its definite,
its suitable and proportionate, penalty? If a man who has
no property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the
State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law
that I know, and determined only by the discretion of those
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: sheik. "When he leaves here he leaves alive. What you do
with him in the desert is none of my concern, but I shall
not have the blood of a Frenchman on the hands of my tribe
on account of another man's quarrel--they would send
soldiers here and kill many of my people, and burn our tents
and drive away our flocks."
"As you say," growled Rokoff. "I'll take him out into the
desert below the DOUAR, and dispatch him."
"You will take him a day's ride from my country," said
the sheik, firmly, "and some of my children shall follow you
to see that you do not disobey me--otherwise there may be
The Return of Tarzan |
