| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Collected Articles by Frederick Douglass: equal rights and equal means to maintain them. What was theory
before the war has been made fact by the war.
There is cause to be thankful even for rebellion. It is an impressive teacher,
though a stern and terrible one. In both characters it has come to us,
and it was perhaps needed in both. It is an instructor never
a day before its time, for it comes only when all other means
of progress and enlightenment have failed. Whether the oppressed
and despairing bondman, no longer able to repress his deep yearnings
for manhood, or the tyrant, in his pride and impatience, takes the initiative,
and strikes the blow for a firmer hold and a longer lease of oppression,
the result is the same,--society is instructed, or may be.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: and by their votes elect representatives and deliver
into their hands the government."
I signed it "The Boss," and dated it from Merlin's
Cave. Clarence said --
"Why, that tells where we are, and invites them to
call right away."
"That is the idea. We STRIKE -- by the Proclama-
tion -- then it's their innings. Now have the thing set
up and printed and posted, right off; that is, give the
order; then, if you've got a couple of bicycles handy
at the foot of the hill, ho for Merlin's Cave!"
 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: "But--"
"I did not know where. I went to Madame d'Espard's; you were not
there."
"But--"
"That evening at the Opera, I watched the balcony; every time a door
opened my heart was beating!"
"But--"
"What an evening I had! You don't reflect on such tempests of the
heart."
"But--"
"Life is shortened by such emotions."
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