| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: Testaments. It has been charged by the despisers of truth that
the text has been modified and even falsified in many places,
which has shocked and startled many simple Christians, even among
the educated who do not know any Hebrew or Greek. It is devoutly
hoped that with this publication the slander of the godless will
be stopped and the scruples of the devout removed, at least in
part. It may even give rise to more writing on such matters and
questions such as these. So I ask all friends of the Truth to
seriously take this work to heart and faithfully pray to God for a
proper understanding of the divine Scriptures towards the
improvement and increase of our common Christendom. Amen.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: the first news of the devastation of his Capital.
When the Offor Collection was put to the hammer by Messrs Sotheby
and Wilkinson, the well-known auctioneers of Wellington Street,
and when about three days of the sale had been gone through, a Fire
occurred in the adjoining house, and, gaining possession of the Sale Rooms,
made a speedy end of the unique Bunyan and other rarities then on show.
I was allowed to see the Ruins on the following day, and by means
of a ladder and some scrambling managed to enter the Sale Room
where parts of the floor still remained. It was a fearful sight
those scorched rows of Volumes still on the shelves; and curious was it
to notice how the flames, burning off the backs of the books first,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Signs of a hundred beers and whiskeys
Flashed from the walls above, and the mirrors
And glasses behind the bar were lighted
In some strange way, and into my spirit
A thousand shafts of terrible fire
Burned like death, and I fell. The story
Of what came then, you know.
But tell me,
What does the whole thing mean? What are we, --
Slaves of an awful ignorance? puppets
Pulled by a fiend? or gods, without knowing it?
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