| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: sometimes when I am not torturing myself do really and sincerely
say, 'What a beginning, what a wonderful beginning!' It may really
be so. It may become so. If it does I shall owe much to this new
personality that has altered every man's life in this place.
You may realise it when I say that had I been released last May, as
I tried to be, I would have left this place loathing it and every
official in it with a bitterness of hatred that would have poisoned
my life. I have had a year longer of imprisonment, but humanity
has been in the prison along with us all, and now when I go out I
shall always remember great kindnesses that I have received here
from almost everybody, and on the day of my release I shall give
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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: there is a great measure of truth in this view. There
would be little motive to robbery, for example, in an
Anarchist world, unless it were organized on a large
scale by a body of men bent on upsetting the Anarchist
regime. It may also be conceded that impulses
toward criminal violence could be very largely eliminated
by a better education. But all such contentions,
it seems to me, have their limitations. To take
an extreme case, we cannot suppose that there would
be no lunatics in an Anarchist community, and some
of these lunatics would, no doubt, be homicidal.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: there is nothing to be done."
"Zikali!" exclaimed Umbezi. "What has the old dwarf to do with this
matter?"
"Never mind what he has or has not to do with it," I broke in, for
although I do not think that he meant them as a taunt, but merely as a
statement of fact, Saduko's words stung me to the quick, especially as
my conscience told me that they were not altogether without foundation.
"We will try to kill some of these buffalo," I went on, "although,
unless the herd should get bogged, which is not likely, as the swamp is
very dry, I do not think that we can hope for more than eight or ten at
the most, which won't be of much use for shields. Come, let us make a
Child of Storm |
