| 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: speaker has not yet opened his mouth to speak who is
capable of settling the much-vexed questions of the day.
We love eloquence for its own sake, and not for any truth
which t may utter, or any heroism it may inspire. Our
legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of
free trade and of freed, of union, and of rectitude, to a
nation. They have no genius or talent for comparatively
humble questions of taxation and finance, commerce and
manufactures and agriculture. If we were left solely to the
wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance,
uncorrected by the seasonable experience and the effectual
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: "Now say to Fra Dolcino, then, to arm him,
Thou, who perhaps wilt shortly see the sun,
If soon he wish not here to follow me,
So with provisions, that no stress of snow
May give the victory to the Novarese,
Which otherwise to gain would not be easy."
After one foot to go away he lifted,
This word did Mahomet say unto me,
Then to depart upon the ground he stretched it.
Another one, who had his throat pierced through,
And nose cut off close underneath the brows,
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: to next."
"Quit thinking about danger, please," said the
Scarecrow, warningly.
"Why?" asked the boy.
"If you think of some dreadful thing, it's liable to
happen, but if you don't think of it, and no one else
thinks of it, it just can't happen. Do you see?"
"No," answered Woot. "I won't be able to see much of
anything until we escape from this enchantment."
But they got out of the invisible strip of country
as suddenly as they had entered it, and the instant
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
