| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: did against all my convictions at the time. Because there was no
justice in France to move against the murderer of Philippe de
Vilmorin, I moved in the only way that I imagined could make the
evil done recoil upon the hand that did it, and those other hands
that had the power but not the spirit to punish. Since then I
have come to see that I was wrong, and that Philippe de Vilmorin
and those who thought with him were in the right.
"You must realize, monsieur, that it is with sincerest thankfulness
that I find I have done nothing calling for repentance; that, on
the contrary, when France is given the inestimable boon of a
constitution, as will shortly happen, I may take pride in having
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: How does it become a man to behave toward the American
government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace
be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize
that political organization as my government which is the
slave's government also.
All men recognize the right of revolution; that is,
the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist,
the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are
great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not
the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the
Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me that this was a
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
