| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The United States Bill of Rights: or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
II
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house,
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war,
but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
IV
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: the agreement was she should tow us to Anjer or Ba-
tavia, if possible, where we could extinguish the fire by
scuttling, and then proceed on our voyage--to Bankok!
The old man seemed excited. 'We will do it yet,' he
said to Mahon, fiercely. He shook his fist at the sky.
Nobody else said a word.
"At noon the steamer began to tow. She went ahead
slim and high, and what was left of the Judea followed
at the end of seventy fathom of tow-rope,--followed
her swiftly like a cloud of smoke with mastheads pro-
truding above. We went aloft to furl the sails. We
Youth |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: them, or, in other words, they were only applicable within the range of our
knowledge. But into the origin of these ideas, which he obtains partly by
an analysis of the proposition, partly by development of the 'ego,' he
never inquires--they seem to him to have a necessary existence; nor does he
attempt to analyse the various senses in which the word 'cause' or
'substance' may be employed.
The philosophy of Berkeley could never have had any meaning, even to
himself, if he had first analyzed from every point of view the conception
of 'matter.' This poor forgotten word (which was 'a very good word' to
describe the simplest generalization of external objects) is now superseded
in the vocabulary of physical philosophers by 'force,' which seems to be
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