| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: 4402, 8d., 1889]; read the Report on Home Industries (sacred
word, Home!) issued by the Women's Industrial Council [Home
Industries of Women in London, 1897, 1s., 12 Buckingham Street,
W. C.]; and ask yourself whether, if the lot in life therein
described were your lot in life, you would not prefer the lot of
Cleopatra, of Theodora, of the Lady of the Camellias, of Mrs
Tanqueray, of Zaza, of Iris. If you can go deep enough into
things to be able to say no, how many ignorant half-starved girls
will believe you are speaking sincerely? To them the lot of Iris
is heavenly in comparison with their own. Yet our King, like his
predecessors, says to the dramatist, "Thus, and thus only, shall
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: anything to them, but went across the way to shun meeting them, as
was usual to do at that time, for fear of the plague. But when I came
nearer to the gate I met another woman with more hats come out of
the gate. 'What business, mistress,' said I, 'have you had there?'
'There are more people there,' said she; 'I have had no more business there
than they.' I was hasty to get to the gate then, and said no more to her,
by which means she got away. But just as I came to the gate, I saw
two more coming across the yard to come out with hats also on their
heads and under their arms, at which I threw the gate to behind me,
which having a spring lock fastened itself; and turning to the women,
'Forsooth,' said I, 'what are you doing here?' and seized upon the hats,
A Journal of the Plague Year |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case, they
think, in the Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me that this
was a bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities
brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not make an
ado about it, for I can do without them. All machines have their
friction; and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the
evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it. But
when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and
robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any
longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation
which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a
Walden |
