| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: under that pressure is most felt; the Woman Labour Movement has taken its
rise almost as exclusively among the wealthy, cultured, and brain-labouring
classes, where alone, at the present day, the danger of enervation through
non-employment, and of degeneration through dependence on the sex function
exists. The female labour movement of our day is, in its ultimate essence,
an endeavour on the part of a section of the race to save itself from
inactivity and degeneration, and this, even at the immediate cost of most
heavy loss in material comfort and ease to the individuals composing it.
The male labour movement is, directly and in the first place, material;
and, or at least superficially, more or less self-seeking, though its
ultimate reaction on society by saving the poorer members from degradation
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: merciful than those who, through too much mercy, allow disorders to
arise, from which follow murders or robberies; for these are wont to
injure the whole people, whilst those executions which originate with
a prince offend the individual only.
[*] During the rioting between the Cancellieri and Panciatichi
factions in 1502 and 1503.
And of all princes, it is impossible for the new prince to avoid the
imputation of cruelty, owing to new states being full of dangers.
Hence Virgil, through the mouth of Dido, excuses the inhumanity of her
reign owing to its being new, saying:
"Res dura, et regni novitas me talia cogunt
The Prince |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: time to publish a volume by itself, expressly upon that subject,
I refer the reader thither; and, in the mean time, proceed to
relate my own sad catastrophe.
CHAPTER X.
[The author's economy, and happy life, among the Houyhnhnms. His
great improvement in virtue by conversing with them. Their
conversations. The author has notice given him by his master,
that he must depart from the country. He falls into a swoon for
grief; but submits. He contrives and finishes a canoe by the
help of a fellow-servant, and puts to sea at a venture.]
I had settled my little economy to my own heart's content. My
Gulliver's Travels |
