| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: it seems elaborate and costly. And yet what else can it be? It
MUST be a practical jest.' And just then his eye fell upon a
feature which seemed corroborative of that view: the pagoda of
cigars which Michael had erected ere he left the chambers. 'Why
that?' reflected Gideon. 'It seems entirely irresponsible.' And
drawing near, he gingerly demolished it. 'A key,' he thought.
'Why that? And why so conspicuously placed?' He made the circuit
of the instrument, and perceived the keyhole at the back. 'Aha!
this is what the key is for,' said he. 'They wanted me to look
inside. Stranger and stranger.' And with that he turned the key
and raised the lid.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Helen of Troy And Other Poems by Sara Teasdale: And long for a love like this.
II
The Minstrel sings:
I lie beside the princess' tower,
So close she cannot see my face,
And watch her dreaming all day long,
And bending with a lily's grace.
Her cheeks are paler than the moon
That sails along a sunny sky,
And yet her silent mouth is red
Where tender words and kisses lie.
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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: deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievious
persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike
those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not
at one no government, but at once a better government. Let
every man make known what kind of government would command
his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.
After all, the practical reason why, when the power is
once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted,
and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they
are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
