| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: fellow-men.
A British or American shopkeeper or farmer asks nothing of his
Government. He can, if he chooses, be elected to some local office
(generally unsalaried) by the votes of his fellow-citizens. But
that is his right, and adds nothing to his respectability. The test
of that latter, in a country where all honest callings are equally
honourable, is the amount of money he can make; and a very sound
practical test that is, in a country where intellect and capital are
free. Beyond that, he is what he is, and wishes to be no more, save
what he can make himself. He has his rights, guaranteed by law and
public opinion; and as long as he stands within them, and (as he
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare: understand him, unless some one among us, whom we must produce
for an interpreter.
FIRST SOLDIER.
Good captain, let me be the interpreter.
FIRST LORD.
Art not acquainted with him? knows he not thy voice?
FIRST SOLDIER.
No, sir, I warrant you.
FIRST LORD.
But what linsey-woolsey has thou to speak to us again?
FIRST SOLDIER.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: in the most savage and inhuman breast.
The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one
million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two
hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which
number I subtract thirty thousand couple, who are able to
maintain their own children, (although I apprehend there cannot
be so many, under the present distresses of the kingdom) but this
being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand
breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand, for those women who
miscarry, or whose children die by accident or disease within the
year. There only remain an hundred and twenty thousand children
A Modest Proposal |
