| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Herland by Charlotte Gilman: the few poor savages far below, with whom they had no contact.
They loved their country because it was their nursery,
playground, and workshop--theirs and their children's. They were
proud of it as a workshop, proud of their record of ever-increasing
efficiency; they had made a pleasant garden of it, a very practical
little heaven; but most of all they valued it--and here it is hard
for us to understand them--as a cultural environment for their children.
That, of course, is the keynote of the whole distinction--
their children.
From those first breathlessly guarded, half-adored race mothers,
all up the ascending line, they had this dominant thought of building
Herland |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: gentlemen rise superior, in their own opinion, to this;
but if the contempt which they contract for their coun-
try is the most valuable acquisition of their travels, I
am far from thinking that their time and money are
well spent.
MARIA
What noble sentiments!
CHARLOTTE
Let my brother set out where he will in the fields of
conversation, he is sure to end his tour in the temple
of gravity.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: they will not teach the pure doctrine of the Gospel. The
churches do not ask that the bishops should restore concord at
the expense of their honor; which, nevertheless, it would be
proper for good pastors to do. They ask only that they would
release unjust burdens which are new and have been received
contrary to the custom of the Church Catholic. It may be that
in the beginning there were plausible reasons for some of
these ordinances; and yet they are not adapted to later times.
It is also evident that some were adopted through erroneous
conceptions. Therefore it would be befitting the clemency of
the Pontiffs to mitigate them now, because such a modification
|
