| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: and yet she does not move from the place where I put her.
I tickle her gently with the tip of a long straw. When at home, if
teased in this way, the Banded Epeira--like the others, for that
matter--violently shakes the web to intimidate the aggressor. This
time, nothing happens: despite my repeated enticements, the Spider
does not stir a limb. It is as though she were numbed with terror.
And she has reason to be: the other is watching her from her lofty
loop-hole.
This is probably not the only cause of her fright. When my straw
does induce her to take a few steps, I see her lift her legs with
some difficulty. She tugs a bit, drags her tarsi till she almost
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: whether a roasted chicken will fly into your mouth!" I do not say
that a man shall not labor and seek a living; but he shall not
worry, not be greedy, not despair, thinking that he will not have
enough; for in Adam we are all condemned to labor, when God says
to him, Genesis iii, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread." And Job v, "As the birds to flying, so is man born unto
labor." Now the birds fly without worry and greed, and so we also
should labor without worry and greed; but if you do worry and are
greedy, wishing that the roasted chicken fly into your mouth:
worry and be greedy, and see whether you will thereby fulfil
God's Commandment and be saved!
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Collected Articles by Frederick Douglass: The appeal was to the people, and the verdict was worthy of the tribunal.
Upon an occasion of his own selection, with the advice and approval
of his astute Secretary, soon after the members of the Congress had returned
to their constituents, the President quitted the executive mansion,
sandwiched himself between two recognized heroes,--men whom the whole country
delighted to honor,--and, with all the advantage which such company
could give him, stumped the country from the Atlantic to the Mississippi,
advocating everywhere his policy as against that of Congress.
It was a strange sight, and perhaps the most disgraceful exhibition
ever made by any President; but, as no evil is entirely unmixed,
good has come of this, as from many others. Ambitious, unscrupulous,
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