| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was never deflected
from London. French history did not desert Paris, to
make a new start at Toulon or at Quiberon Bay.
And only a fanatic could suppose that Russian history
would run away from Moscow, to begin again in a semi-Tartar
peninsula in the Black Sea. Moscow changes continually, and
may so change as to make easy the return of the "refugees."
Some have already returned. But the refugees will not return as
conquerors. Should a Russian Napoleon (an unlikely figure, even in
spite of our efforts) appear, he will not throw away the invaluable
asset of a revolutionary war-cry. He will have to fight some one,
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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: co-operate with, and do the bidding of, those far away, and
without whom the latter would be harmless. We are
accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but
improvement is slow, because the few are not as materially
wiser or better than the many. It is not so important that
many should be good as you, as that there be some absolute
goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump.
There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery
and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end
to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington
and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets,
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: "And when you've learned to squeak, my man,
And caught the double sob,
You're pretty much where you began:
Just try and gibber if you can!
That's something LIKE a job!
"I'VE tried it, and can only say
I'm sure you couldn't do it, e-
ven if you practised night and day,
Unless you have a turn that way,
And natural ingenuity.
"Shakspeare I think it is who treats
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