| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: has [entirely] removed, even from those who are on its side,
the hope that it will ever permit a free Council, much less
that it will itself hold one, whereat, as is just, they [many
Papists] are greatly offended and have no little trouble on
that account [are disgusted with this negligence of the Pope],
since they notice thereby that the Pope would rather see all
Christendom perish and all souls damned than suffer either
himself or his adherents to be reformed even a little, and his
[their] tyranny to be limited, nevertheless I have determined
meanwhile to publish these articles in plain print, so that,
should I die before there would be a Council (as I fully
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: his own wife. Also: It is better to marry than to burn.
Secondly Christ says, Matt. 19,11: All men cannot receive this
saying, where He teaches that not all men are fit to lead a
single life; for God created man for procreation, Gen. 1, 28.
Nor is it in man's power, without a singular gift and work of
God, to alter this creation. [For it is manifest, and many
have confessed that no good, honest, chaste life, no
Christian, sincere, upright conduct has resulted (from the
attempt), but a horrible, fearful unrest and torment of
conscience has been felt by many until the end.] Therefore,
those who are not fit to lead a single life ought to contract
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: see the merriment that took place here as we banqueted on the
grass under the trees. How we made the woods ring with
bursts of laughter at the songs of little Wagstaff and the merry
undertaker! After dinner, too, the young folks would play at
blind-man's-buff and hide-and-seek; and it was amusing to see
them tangled among the briers, and to hear a fine romping girl
now and then squeak from among the bushes. The elder folks
would gather round the cheesemonger and the apothecary to
hear them talk politics; for they generally brought out a
newspaper in their pockets, to pass away time in the country.
They would now and then, to be sure, get a little warm in
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