| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: their task of winning freedom for the American immured in the
Chihuahua dungeon they already found themselves in the heart of a
web of intrigue, the stakes of which were so high as to carry
life and death with them in the balance. But for them the sun
shone brightly. It was enough that they played the game and
shared the risks together. The jocund morning was in their
hearts, and brought with it an augury of success based on nothing
so humdrum or tangible as reason.
O'Connor carried with him to the grim fortress not only his
permit for an inspection, but also a note from O'Halloran that
was even more potent in effect. For Colonel Ferdinand Gabilonda,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Proposed Roads To Freedom by Bertrand Russell: individuals, it is not by prisons, nor even by resorting to the
hangmen, that we can diminish their numbers. By our prisons,
we merely multiply them and render them worse. By our detectives,
our `price of blood,' our executions, and our jails, we
spread in society such a terrible flow of basest passions and
habits, that he who should realize the effects of these institutions
to their full extent, would be frightened by what society is
doing under the pretext of maintaining morality. We must
search for other remedies, and the remedies have been indicated
long since.'' Kropotkin, ``Anarchist Communism,'' pp. 31-32.
[52] ``Anarchist Communism,'' p. 27.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: contemplating the pink feathers and the fresh toilet of Madame des
Grassins, the martial head of the banker, the faces of Adolphe, the
president, the abbe, and the notary, saying to himself:--
"They are all after my money. Hey! neither the one nor the other shall
have my daughter; but they are useful--useful as harpoons to fish
with."
This family gaiety in the old gray room dimly lighted by two tallow
candles; this laughter, accompanied by the whirr of Nanon's spinning-
wheel, sincere only upon the lips of Eugenie or her mother; this
triviality mingled with important interests; this young girl, who,
like certain birds made victims of the price put upon them, was now
Eugenie Grandet |
