| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: is to say that the similarity (in ESSENCE though not always
in external detail) between the creeds and rituals of widely
sundered tribes and peoples is so great as to justify the view
--advanced in the present volume--that these creeds and
rituals are the necessary outgrowths of human psychology,
slowly evolving, and that consequently they have a common
origin and in their various forms a common expression. Of
this great World-religion, so coming down, Christianity
is undoubtedly a branch, and an important branch. But
there have been important branches before; and while
it may be true that Christianity emphasizes some points
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: along the trail to meet him, leading a child by the hand.
An absence of almost two years!
They embraced each other and stood speechless. She
wept, sobbed. Demetrio stared in astonishment at his
wife who seemed to have aged ten or twenty years.
Then he looked at the child who gazed up at him in sur-
prise. His heart leaped to his mouth as he saw in the
child's features his own steel features and fiery eyes ex-
actly reproduced. He wanted to hold him in his arms, but
the frightened child took refuge in his mother's skirts.
"It's your own father, baby! It's your daddy!"
The Underdogs |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power is the natural
disease of monarchy.
SECONDLY - That the commons, by being appointed for that purpose,
are either wiser or more worthy of confidence than the crown.
But as the same constitution which gives the commons a power to check
the king by withholding the supplies, gives afterwards the king a power
to check the commons, by empowering him to reject their other bills;
it again supposes that the king is wiser than those whom it has already
supposed to be wiser than him. A mere absurdity!
There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy;
it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him
Common Sense |
