| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: I cannot expect, like Orpheus, to change the nature of the
rocks and trees and beasts.
I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do
not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set
myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather, I may
say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land.
I am but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I have
reason to suspect myself on this head; and each year, as the
tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself disposed to review
the acts and position of the general and State governments,
and the spirit of the people to discover a pretext for conformity.
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: Certainly she would. What door is there in Europe at which the
American girl is afraid to knock? "But wait a moment. How do you
ask for fried chicken and pancakes in Norwegian? KYLLING OG
PANDEKAGE? How fierce it sounds! All right now. Run along and
fish."
The river welcomes me like an old friend. The tune that it sings is
the same that the flowing water repeats all around the world. Not
otherwise do the lively rapids carry the familiar air, and the
larger falls drone out a burly bass, along the west branch of the
Penobscot, or down the valley of the Bouquet. But here there are no
forests to conceal the course of the stream. It lies as free to the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Moral Emblems by Robert Louis Stevenson: But she, although the heavens be black,
Holds on upon the starboard tack,
For why? although to-day she sink,
Still safe she sails in printer's ink,
And though to-day the seamen drown,
My cut shall hand their memory down.
Poem: II
The careful angler chose his nook
At morning by the lilied brook,
And all the noon his rod he plied
By that romantic riverside.
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