| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: sense of the awful change which had passed over their nation. There was
an infinite difference between them and the old Hebrew writers. They
had lost something which those old prophets possessed. I invite you to
ponder, each for himself, on the causes of this strange loss; bearing in
mind that they lost their forefathers' heirloom, exactly in proportion
as they began to believe it to be their exclusive possession, and to
deny other human beings any right to or share in it. It may have been
that the light given to their forefathers had, as they thought, really
departed. It may have been, also, that the light was there all around
them still, as bright as ever, but that they would not open their eyes
and behold it; or rather, could not open them, because selfishness and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy: each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony
to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered
the call to service surround the globe. Now the trumpet summons us again. . .
not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need. . .not as a call to battle. . .
though embattled we are. . .but a call to bear the burden of a long
twilight struggle. . .year in and year out, rejoicing in hope,
patient in tribulation. . .a struggle against the common enemies of man:
tyranny. . .poverty. . .disease. . .and war itself. Can we forge against
these enemies a grand and global alliance. . .North and South. . .
East and West. . .that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind?
Will you join in that historic effort?
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: And rather despair than submit yourselves. And verily, I love you, because
ye know not to-day how to live, ye higher men! For thus do YE live--best!
4.
Have ye courage, O my brethren? Are ye stout-hearted? NOT the courage
before witnesses, but anchorite and eagle courage, which not even a God any
longer beholdeth?
Cold souls, mules, the blind and the drunken, I do not call stout-hearted.
He hath heart who knoweth fear, but VANQUISHETH it; who seeth the abyss,
but with PRIDE.
He who seeth the abyss, but with eagle's eyes,--he who with eagle's talons
GRASPETH the abyss: he hath courage.--
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
