| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: and well-educated, maidens for mothers and housekeepers, etc.
If they will not serve this purpose, it is better that they be
abandoned or razed, rather than [continued and], with their
blasphemous services invented by men, regarded as something
better than the ordinary Christian life and the offices and
callings ordained by God. For all this also is contrary to the
first chief article concerning the redemption made through
Jesus Christ. Add to this that (like all other human
inventions) these have neither been commanded; they are
needless and useless, and, besides, afford occasion for
dangerous and vain labor [dangerous annoyances and fruitless
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: made myself a recreation of a recreation; and that it might prove so to
him, and not read dull and tediously, I have in several places mixed, not
any scurrility, but some innocent, harmless mirth, of which, if thou be a
severe, sour-complexioned man, then I here disallow thee to be a
competent judge; for divines say, there are offences given, and offences
not given but taken.
And I am the willinger to justify the pleasant part of it, because though
it is known I can be serious at seasonable times, yet the whole
Discourse is, or rather was, a picture of my own disposition, especially
in such days and times as I have laid aside business, and gone a-fishing
with honest Nat. and R. Roe; but they are gone, and with them most of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: his offerings, and not be so profuse till he was master of the
countries which those sweet gums and spices came from. So
Alexander now wrote to him, saying, "We have sent you abundance of
myrrh and frankincense, that for the future you may not be stingy
to the gods." Among the treasures and other booty that was taken
from Darius, there was a very precious casket, which being brought
to Alexander for a great rarity, he asked those about him what
they thought fittest to be laid up in it; and when they had
delivered their various opinions, he told them he should keep
Homer's Iliad in it. This is attested by many credible authors,
and if what those of Alexandria tell us, relying upon the
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