| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: deliver up, in compliance with the laws, fugitive
slaves, for the high, the great, the momentous
interests of those [Southern] States?"
The Right Rev. Bishop Hopkins, of Vermont, in
a Lecture at Lockport, says, "It was warranted by
the Old Testament;" and inquires, "What effect
had the Gospel in doing away with slavery? None
whatever." Therefore he argues, as it is expressly
permitted by the Bible, it does not in itself involve
any sin; but that every Christian is authorised by
the Divine Law to own slaves, provided they were
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: delicately tinted; passion-veined hearts, cut bare for curious
eyes; prophetic utterances, concrete and clear; or some word of
pathos or fun from the old friends who have endenizened
themselves in everybody's home. You want something, in fact, to
lift you out of this crowded, tobacco-stained commonplace, to
kindle and chafe and glow in you. I want you to dig into this
commonplace, this vulgar American life, and see what is in it.
Sometimes I think it has a new and awful significance that we do
not see.
Your ears are openest to the war-trumpet now. Ha! that is
spirit-stirring!--that wakes up the old Revolutionary blood!
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: fancies which suit youth and good looks and wit so well. Chesnel paid
for it all, not without using, like ancient parliaments, the right of
protest, albeit he spoke with angelic kindness.
"What a pity it is that so good a man should be so tiresome!"
Victurnien would say to himself every time that the notary staunched
some wound in his purse.
Chesnel had been left a widower, and childless; he had taken his old
master's son to fill the void in his heart. It was a pleasure to him
to watch the lad driving up the High Street, perched aloft on the box-
seat of the tilbury, whip in hand, and a rose in his button-hole,
handsome, well turned out, envied by every one.
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