| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: its circuit. It would be entirely safe, even if it were built of
lucifer matches.
If your seat is near the center of a row and you enter late
you must work your way along a rank of about twenty-five ladies
and gentlemen to get to it. Yet this causes no trouble, for
everybody stands up until all the seats are full, and the filling
is accomplished in a very few minutes. Then all sit down, and
you have a solid mass of fifteen hundred heads, making a steep
cellar-door slant from the rear of the house down to the stage.
All the lights were turned low, so low that the congregation
sat in a deep and solemn gloom. The funereal rustling of dresses
What is Man? |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: I may take it upon me and rejoice in my strength.
Is it not this: To humiliate oneself in order to mortify one's pride? To
exhibit one's folly in order to mock at one's wisdom?
Or is it this: To desert our cause when it celebrateth its triumph? To
ascend high mountains to tempt the tempter?
Or is it this: To feed on the acorns and grass of knowledge, and for the
sake of truth to suffer hunger of soul?
Or is it this: To be sick and dismiss comforters, and make friends of the
deaf, who never hear thy requests?
Or is it this: To go into foul water when it is the water of truth, and
not disclaim cold frogs and hot toads?
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: became agitated, and all sorts of oaths and fearful
threats were heaped upon the "d----d niggers, for
coming among white folks." Some of them said
they would not stop there a minute if there was
another house to go to.
The mistress came up the next morning to know
how long we wished to stop. We said a fortnight.
"Oh! dear me, it is impossible for us to accom-
modate you, and I think you had better go: you
must understand, I have no prejudice myself; I
think a good deal of the coloured people, and have
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
