| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: with far-off foes, but with those who, neat at home,
co-operate with, and do the bidding of, those far away, and
without whom the latter would be harmless. We are
accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but
improvement is slow, because the few are not as materially
wiser or better than the many. It is not so important that
many should be good as you, as that there be some absolute
goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump.
There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery
and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end
to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: close, not immeasurably distant and unattainable like the desert.
Here in the shade of afternoon Madeline and Edith would often
lounge under a low-branched tree. Seldom they talked much, for
it was afternoon and dreamy with the strange spell of this
mountain fastness. There was smoky haze in the valleys, a fleecy
cloud resting over the peaks, a sailing eagle in the blue sky,
silence that was the unbroken silence of the wild heights, and a
soft wind laden with incense of pine.
One afternoon, however, Edith appeared prone to talk seriously.
"Majesty, I must go home soon. I cannot stay out here forever.
Are you going back with me?"
The Light of Western Stars |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: were, a new man. What was only an appendage to his position in
aristocratic armies, has thus become the main point, the basis of
his whole condition. Under the old French monarchy officers were
always called by their titles of nobility; they are now always
called by the title of their military rank. This little change
in the forms of language suffices to show that a great revolution
has taken place in the constitution of society and in that of the
army. In democratic armies the desire of advancement is almost
universal: it is ardent, tenacious, perpetual; it is strengthened
by all other desires, and only extinguished with life itself. But
it is easy to see, that of all armies in the world, those in
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