| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Collected Articles by Frederick Douglass: that tolerates a privileged class, or denies to any of its citizens
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,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: "How'do, Doctor Stell? Pretty slim show, ain't it?" the reporter
cheerfully flung out at him. And Mr. J. B. Hewson, with a nod of
amicable assent, passed on.
Granice sat benumbed. He knew he had not been mistaken--the man
who had just passed was the same man whom Allonby had sent to see
him: a physician disguised as a detective. Allonby, then, had
thought him insane, like the others--had regarded his confession
as the maundering of a maniac. The discovery froze Granice with
horror--he seemed to see the mad-house gaping for him.
"Isn't there a man a good deal like him--a detective named J. B.
Hewson?"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: stand there was an official communication to the
Home from the Harbour Office this morning. Is
that so?"
Instead of telling me to mind my own business,
as he might have done, he began to whine with
an undertone of impudence. He couldn't see me
anywhere this morning. He couldn't be expected
to run all over the town after me.
"Who wants you to?" I cried. And then my
eyes became opened to the inwardness of things
and speeches the triviality of which had been so
The Shadow Line |
