| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The United States Constitution: promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the
United States of America.
Article 1
Section 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a
Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and
House of Representatives.
Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members
chosen every second Year by the People of the several States,
and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite
for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature.
The United States Constitution |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: had, because their homes and soil were invaded, while England's soldiers
had suffered no invasion of their island. They had not the stimulus of
the knowledge that the frontier of their country had been violated, their
homes broken up, their families enslaved, or worse. And then he added: 'I
have sometimes wondered in my own mind, though I have hardly dared
confess the sentiment, whether the gallant troops of our Allies would
have fought with equal spirit and so long a time as they did, had they
been engaged in the Highlands of Scotland or on the marches of the Welsh
border.' Why express that wonder? Is there not here an instance of that
needless overlooking of the feelings of others, by which, in times past,
you have chilled those others? Look out for that."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: Thou tell'st not, and the other of that shower,
Thou say'st, is form'd." He answer thus return'd:
"Doubtless thy questions all well pleas'd I hear.
Yet the red seething wave might have resolv'd
One thou proposest. Lethe thou shalt see,
But not within this hollow, in the place,
Whither to lave themselves the spirits go,
Whose blame hath been by penitence remov'd."
He added: "Time is now we quit the wood.
Look thou my steps pursue: the margins give
Safe passage, unimpeded by the flames;
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
