| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: that was described by a German commodore as "the trampling upon by
Malietoa of the German Emperor." I pass the rhetoric by to examine
the point of liability. Four natives were brought to trial for
this horrid fact: not before a native judge, but before the German
magistrate of the tripartite municipality of Apia. One was
acquitted, one condemned for theft, and two for assault. On
appeal, not to Malietoa, but to the three consuls, the case was by
a majority of two to one returned to the magistrate and (as far as
I can learn) was then allowed to drop. Consul Becker himself laid
the chief blame on one of the policemen of the municipality, a
half-white of the name of Scanlon. Him he sought to have
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: as to the exact extent of this ancient lineal measure,
it appears from the figures that the area of Egdon
down to the present day has but little diminished.
"Turbaria Bruaria"--the right of cutting heath-turf--occurs
in charters relating to the district. "Overgrown with
heth and mosse," says Leland of the same dark sweep of country.
Here at least were intelligible facts regarding
landscape--far-reaching proofs productive of genuine
satisfaction. The untameable, Ishmaelitish thing that Egdon
now was it always had been. Civilization was its enemy;
and ever since the beginning of vegetation its soil
Return of the Native |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: It is not uncommonly imagined in France that the virulence
of the press originates in the uncertain social condition, in the
political excitement, and the general sense of consequent evil
which prevail in that country; and it is therefore supposed that
as soon as society has resumed a certain degree of composure the
press will abandon its present vehemence. I am inclined to think
that the above causes explain the reason of the extraordinary
ascendency it has acquired over the nation, but that they do not
exercise much influence upon the tone of its language. The
periodical press appears to me to be actuated by passions and
propensities independent of the circumstances in which it is
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