| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking
people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon
as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a
philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly
take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but
knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish
very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.
There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by
wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs--commerce surrounds it with
her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its
extreme downtown is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by
Moby Dick |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Koran: we believe in God, and what was revealed to us before, and for that
most of you are evildoers?'
Say, 'Can I declare unto you something worse than retribution from
God?' Whomsoever God has cursed and been wroth with- and he has made
of them apes and swine- and who worship Taghut, they are in a worse
plight and are more erring from the level path. When they come to
you they say, 'We believe;' but they entered in with unbelief, and
they went out therewith, and God knows best what they did hide.
Thou wilt see many of them vieing in sin and enmity, and in eating
unlawful things,- evil is it that they have done. The masters and
their doctors prohibit them from speaking sin and eating unlawful
The Koran |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: For instance, why may not any portion of a new
confederacy a year or two hence arbitrarily secede again,
precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it?
All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the
exact temper of doing this.
Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States
to compose a new Union, as to produce harmony only,
and prevent renewed secession?
Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.
A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations,
and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular
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