| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: wished _him_ to do in the case!
With such a complete knock-down to all my hopes, as he had given
me, and feeling, as I did, my entire subjection to his power, I
had very little heart to reply. I must not affirm my innocence
of the allegations which he had piled up against me; for that
would be impudence, and would probably call down fresh violence
as well as wrath upon me. The guilt of a slave is always, and
everywhere, presumed; and the innocence of the slaveholder or the
slave employer, is always asserted. The word of the slave,
against this presumption, is generally treated as impudence,
worthy of punishment. "Do you contradict me, you rascal?" is a
My Bondage and My Freedom |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: which with its parsonage is a pleasing object on the grounds. The
next day the whole party were taken to Blenheim, the seat of the
famous Duke of Marlborough, built at the expense of the country.
The grounds are exquisite, but I was most charmed by the collection
of pictures. Here were the finest Vandykes, Rubens, and Sir Joshua
Reynolds which I have seen. Sir Robert Peel is a great connoisseur
in art and seemed highly to enjoy them. Altogether it was a truly
delightful day: the drive of fifteen miles in open carriages, and
through Oxford, being of itself a high pleasure. Yesterday we
returned to London, and on Thursday we set out for Scotland.
LETTER: To Mr. and Mrs. I.P.D.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: Thy mark is feeble age, but thy false dart
Mistakes that aim and cleaves an infant's heart.
'Hadst thou but bid beware, then he had spoke,
And, hearing him, thy power had lost his power. 944
The Destinies will curse thee for this stroke;
They bid thee crop a weed, thou pluck'st a flower.
Love's golden arrow at him shoull have fled,
And not Death's ebon dart, to strike him dead. 948
'Dost thou drink tears, that thou provok'st such weeping?
What may a heavy groan advantage thee?
Why hast thou cast into eternal sleeping
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