| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: thing as this for the sake of his mere magnanimity. The normal
alone can overcome the abnormal. He could not even reproach that
man over there. "I own myself beaten," he said in a firmer tone.
"You are free. I let you off since I must."
Powell, the onlooker, affirms that at these incomprehensible words
Mrs. Anthony stiffened into the very image of astonishment, with a
frightened stare and frozen lips. But next minute a cry came out
from her heart, not very loud but of a quality which made not only
Captain Anthony (he was not looking at her), not only him but also
the more distant (and equally unprepared) young man, catch their
breath: "But I don't want to be let off," she cried.
Chance |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: bonfire on Mistover Knap again met his eye.
"Still waiting, are you, my lady?" he murmured.
However, he did not proceed that way just then;
but leaving the hill to the left of him, he stumbled
over a rutted road that brought him to a cottage which,
like all other habitations on the heath at this hour,
was only saved from being visible by a faint shine from its
bedroom window. This house was the home of Olly Dowden,
the besom-maker, and he entered.
The lower room was in darkness; but by feeling his way he
found a table, whereon he placed the bottle, and a minute
Return of the Native |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here,
who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than
they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to
the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may. I quarrel not
with far-off foes, but with those who, neat at home,
co-operate with, and do the bidding of, those far away, and
without whom the latter would be harmless. We are
accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but
improvement is slow, because the few are not as materially
wiser or better than the many. It is not so important that
many should be good as you, as that there be some absolute
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
