| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: their morality, their regular and industrious habits, and the
restraint which they almost all observe in their vices no less
than in their virtues, I have no fear that they will meet with
tyrants in their rulers, but rather guardians. *a I think then
that the species of oppression by which democratic nations are
menaced is unlike anything which ever before existed in the
world: our contemporaries will find no prototype of it in their
memories. I am trying myself to choose an expression which will
accurately convey the whole of the idea I have formed of it, but
in vain; the old words "despotism" and "tyranny" are
inappropriate: the thing itself is new; and since I cannot name
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: "BILLSON! oh, come, this is TOO thin! Twenty dollars to a stranger-
-or ANYBODY--BILLSON! Tell it to the marines!" And now at this
point the house caught its breath all of a sudden in a new access of
astonishment, for it discovered that whereas in one part of the hall
Deacon Billson was standing up with his head weekly bowed, in
another part of it Lawyer Wilson was doing the same. There was a
wondering silence now for a while. Everybody was puzzled, and
nineteen couples were surprised and indignant.
Billson and Wilson turned and stared at each other. Billson asked,
bitingly:
"Why do YOU rise, Mr. Wilson?"
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: of Congress, Assemblies, or Conventions, by having had experience in
national concerns, will be able and useful counsellors, and the whole,
being empowered by the people, will have a truly legal authority.
The conferring members being met, let their business be to frame
a CONTINENTAL CHARTER, Or Charter of the United Colonies;
(answering to what is called the Magna Carta of England) fixing
the number and manner of choosing members of Congress, members of Assembly,
with their date of sitting, and drawing the line of business and jurisdiction
between them: (Always remembering, that our strength is continental,
not provincial:) Securing freedom and property to all men, and above
all things, the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates
Common Sense |
