| 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: duties might be inferred? "The manner," says he, "in which
the governments of the States where slavery exists are to
regulate it is for their own consideration, under the
responsibility to their constituents, to the general laws of
propriety, humanity, and justice, and to God. Associations
formed elsewhere, springing from a feeling of humanity, or
any other cause, have nothing whatever to do with it. They
have never received any encouragement from me and they never
will. [These extracts have been inserted since the lecture
was read -HDT]
They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Aesop's Fables by Aesop: he set a trap for it and captured it. "Now that I have caught
thee," he cried, "thou shalt always sing to me."
"We Nightingales never sing in a cage." said the bird.
"Then I'll eat thee." said the Labourer. "I have always heard
say that a nightingale on toast is dainty morsel."
"Nay, kill me not," said the Nightingale; "but let me free,
and I'll tell thee three things far better worth than my poor
body." The Labourer let him loose, and he flew up to a branch of
a tree and said: "Never believe a captive's promise; that's one
thing. Then again: Keep what you have. And third piece of advice
is: Sorrow not over what is lost forever." Then the song-bird
Aesop's Fables |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: hand dealer's shop where there was some of the old furniture. Since
her fainting spell, she dragged her leg, and as her strength was
failing rapidly, old Mother Simon, who had lost her money in the
grocery business, came very morning to chop the wood and pump the
water.
Her eyesight grew dim. She did not open the shutters after that. Many
years passed. But the house did not sell or rent. Fearing that she
would be put out, Felicite did not ask for repairs. The laths of the
roof were rotting away, and during one whole winter her bolster was
wet. After Easter she spit blood.
Then Mother Simon went for a doctor. Felicite wished to know what her
A Simple Soul |
