Olathe North AP English III
Summer Reading Assignment 2015
Summer reading assignment overview:
1. Rhetorical Terms (Part A): Study the Rhetorical Terms in Part A, and be prepared to take a quiz over the
terms, definitions, and examples within the first few days of school.
2. Choice Book (Part B): Read one of the choice nonfiction books listed in Part B and complete both of the
following:
a. Annotations: While you read your selected book, annotate (either on sticky notes or in the text if you
own it) the text as you do a close reading. You will write an argument essay over your choice book within
the first few days of school, so be sure your annotations reflect a thoughtful reading of your book.
b. Dialectical Journals: Follow directions in Part B to complete 12 dialectical journal entries over your
chosen nonfiction book. You will turn in your dialectical journals to turnitin.com on the first day of
school, so bring in an ELECTRONIC COPY (saved on your flash drive).
3. Synthesis Essay (Part C): Following the instructions in the attached prompt, compose a synthesis essay
about the subject of affluenza. You will turn in your synthesis essay to turnitin.com on the first day of school,
so bring in an ELECTRONIC COPY (saved on your flash drive).
Summer Contact Information: If you have questions, please feel free to contact either of the Junior AP
teachers at the following email addresses:
Mrs. Brooks – mbrookson@olatheschools.org
Ms. Runde – mrundeon@olatheschools.org
Important Dates to Remember:


Summer Reading Assignment is due in class on Thursday, August 13, 2015.
Summer Study/Help Session: Wednesday, August 5 from 9am-11am. This session gives you an opportunity
to meet your English teacher (Mrs. Brooks—room 931, Ms. Runde—room 930). It will also allow you to ask
questions about the rhetorical terms, dialectical journals, synthesis essay, or even just about AP English in
general. This is an optional session, but your attendance is highly encouraged.
Part A: Rhetorical Terms Guide
For this portion of the assignment, you will study 20 rhetorical terms that we will reference and add to throughout the
school year. Although it is not a requirement, you might choose to create flashcards on Quizlet or otherwise to help
you study. Within the first week back, you will take a test requiring you to match the following 20 rhetorical terms
with their definitions and an example. (The example may or may not be the one listed below.) Please study the
following terms:
TROPES (the meaning is altered from the usual or expected):
1.
term
analogy
2.
irony
3.
4.
hyperbole
litotes
definition
Compares two things, which are alike in several
respects, for the purpose of explaining or
clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or
object by showing how the idea or object is similar
to some familiar one.
A mode of expression, through words (verbal
irony) or events (situational irony), conveying a
reality different from and usually opposite to
appearance or expectation.
A deliberate exaggeration or overstatement.
A special form of understatement in which we
affirm something by negating its contrary.
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example
“Tom was as nervous the day of his wedding as
he was on their first date.”
“Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.” (Coleridge)
“Man, we’ve been in this class FOREVER!”
"She's not a bad cook." (meaning that she's
quite a good cook)
5.
juxtaposition
6.
allusion
7.
synecdoche
8.
metonymy
9.
paradox
10. euphemism
A poetic and rhetorical device in which normally
unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed
next to one another for the purpose of compareson, often creating an effect of surprise and wit.
An indirect reference to a well-known person,
place, event, literary work, or work of art.
(usually conveying a meaning beyond the literal)
A form of metaphor in which a part of something
is used to stand for the whole thing.
A figure of speech in which the name of one
object is substituted for that of another closely
associated with it.
A statement that seems contradictory or absurd
but that expresses the truth.
A device where being indirect replaces directness
to avoid unpleasantness.
“His words were both fearful and reassuring.”
“My neighbor is never seen coming out of his
house; he is Boo Radley.” (Boo Radley is a
character from To Kill a Mockingbird; suggests
the neighbor is a harmless recluse.)
“He got a new set of wheels.” (set of wheels =
car)
People often say “the White House” to refer to
the president and his administration.
“Deep down he’s really very shallow.”
“Her uncle passed away.” (instead of “died”)
SCHEMES (syntax or word order is altered from the original):
term
11. parallelism /
parallel structure
12. chiasmus
13. epanalepsis
14. antithesis
definition
Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related
words, phrases, or clauses.
A sentence where the grammatical structure of the
first clause or phrase is reversed in the second,
sometimes repeating the same words.
The repetition at the end of a clause of the word
that occurred at the beginning of the clause; it tends
to make the sentence or clause in which it occurs
stand apart from its surroundings.
Juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas (often,
although not always, in parallel structure).
example
“Singing a song or writing a poem is joyous.”
“He exalts his enemies; his friends he destroys.”
"He is noticeable for nothing in the world except for
the markedness by which he is noticeable for
nothing.”—Edgar Allan Poe
"It has been my experience that folks who have no
vices have very few virtues.”
—Abraham Lincoln
15. epistrophe
The repetition of the same word or group of words at “Unfortunately, it would have been easy to
the ends of successive clauses; it sets up a
love her; it was much harder to know, for
pronounced rhythm and gains a special emphasis
honor’s sake, that he could not love
both by repeating the word and by putting the word what he so wished to love.”
in the final position.
16. Anastrophe
Involves constructing a sentence so the predicate
Among the weeds were a few wildflowers.
(sentence inversion) comes before the subject.
17. asyndeton
A deliberate omission of conjunctions in a series of
I saw the mountain; I climbed the mountain; I
related clauses; it speeds the pace of the sentence.
conquered the mountain
18. polysyndeton
The deliberate use of many conjunctions for special
The meal was amazing—my mother had cooked
emphasis—to highlight quantity or mass of detail or
turkey and dressing and green peas and fruit salad
to create a flowing, continuous sentence pattern; it
and mashed potatoes smothered with gravy and
slows the pace of the sentence.
toasty white rolls with honey and pumpkin pie.
19. anaphora
The repetition of the same word or group of words
We will pursue him into the mountains; we will
at the beginning of successive clauses; it helps to
pursue him into the desert; we will pursue him down
establish a strong rhythm and produces a powerful
valleys and into canyons; we will pursue him to the
emotional effect.
ends of the earth.
20. ellipses
The deliberate omission of a word or words which
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
are readily implied by the context; it creates an
~Alexander Pope
elegant or daring economy of words.
(“is” is omitted, but implied)
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Part B: Choice Nonfiction Book with Annotations and Dialectical Journals
Choose one of the following books to read:







Columbine by Dave Cullen
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement by Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell
Nickel and Dimed: on (not) getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
While reading, you will need to complete two tasks:
1.
Annotate your book while reading:
Use small sticky notes to mark the important parts of the text that you
think you will need to remember and think about as you prepare for the argument essay. Annotating simply means
marking the page as you read with comments and/or notes. The principle reason you should annotate what you read is
to aid in understanding. Annotating is also a way of encouraging you to slow down and read a passage closely, so that it
will make you a better reader.
Annotating may include:

Highlighting key words, phrases, or sentences

Writing questions or comments in the margins

Bracketing important ideas or passages

Connecting ideas with lines or arrows

Highlighting passages that are important to understanding the work

Asking questions, making comments—talking back to the text.
2.
Complete 12 Dialectical Journals: Using the annotations you’ve made in your book, compose two, typed
journal entries for each of the topics listed below. Your quotations should come from throughout the book, not just
select sections.

Remember to cite your quotations appropriately.

You will BRING your finished journals on a FLASHDRIVE to be submitted to turnitin.com the first day of school. In
addition to receiving a grade for the quality of your journals, you will be using the information you collect to
help you write an in-class essay the first week of class.

Each typed entry must include in-depth commentary and reflect a thoughtful reading of the text. Discuss the
significance of the quotation. For example, how do you think this quote contributes to the meaning of the book as
a whole? What do you think the author is saying about the situation, about society, about life, etc.? How does the
author make this point?

Although the quality of the response is more valuable than the quantity, a thoughtful response should be no
shorter than 50 words in length. If you are selecting your quotations wisely, you should have no problem
composing an in-depth response of this length.
Topics for Dialectical Journals
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
The author’s credibility and background
Do you think this author has the authority or experience to speak about this issue? What are the author's credentials? What
might bias the author's argument?
Thesis/Purpose
Identify where the author is conveying his purpose and/or claim and discuss the effectiveness of his argument. How are these
ideas conveyed? Is the author stating it directly or indirectly? Is the argument convincing? Why or why not?
The author’s tone
What is the author’s tone? Does it change throughout the book? How does he/she manipulate tone to serve his/her purpose?
The author’s intended audience
Who is the intended audience for this book? How does the author tailor his/her argument to suit the intended audience?
The book’s structure
How is the book organized? You might want to consider anywhere you see that the author changes his/her tone, point of view, or
the types of rhetorical strategies used. Does he/she use compare and contrast? Does he/she organize ideas in the book in
chronological order or in some other order? Why? What effect does this organization have on the meaning of the book as a
whole?
Rhetorical strategies/style
How would you define the author’s style? Which rhetorical choices does the author use often, and what is the effect to the
meaning of the book?
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SAMPLE DIALECTICAL JOURNAL ENTRY
From Life of Pi by Yan Martel. Notice the direct references to text in both columns.
C. Tone
Commentary:
Quote:
“A foul and pungent smell, an earthy mix of rust and
excrement hung in the air. There was blood everywhere,
coagulating to a deep red crust. A single fly buzzed about,
sounding like an alarm bell of insanity” (Martel 127).
Martel paints a disturbing picture in his description of the
lifeboat following the slow, painful death of the zebra. He
describes the air as smelling like “an earthy mix of rust and
excrement,” the boat as having “blood everywhere,” and his
only companion as “a single fly . . . sounding like an alarm bell
of insanity.” Through this shockingly filthy and revolting
portrayal of the lifeboat, Martel establishes a tone of
absolute disgust.
Details you should notice about the quotation example
above:
Details you should notice about the commentary above:
1. The first sentence gives the reader context. What is going on in
the passage selected?
2. Quotations are embedded into the text as a part of the
commentary.
3. The commentary is more than just a personal reaction to the text.
It describes the tone and how it is used in the text.
1. Title: identifies which topic is being discussed.
2. The quotation is accurately taken from the text, with no
errors.
3. The quotation is properly cited with the author and page
number in parentheses and is correctly punctuated.
Part C: Synthesis Essay
(Reminder: You will need to TYPE and bring in an electronic copy of your essay on a FLASHDRIVE. You will be submitting
your essay to turnitin.com on the first day of school.)
Preparing for the Synthesis Essay—
Overview: One of the three essay prompts on the English Language and Composition Examination is a synthesis essay. A
synthesis essay is an essay linking at least three documents. When writing an argumentative synthesis essay, your goal should be
to take a position on the prompt, and then support that position using evidence from the documents. With this type of prompt,
you combine, or synthesize, the information from your sources to develop a unique argument on a topic. Your thesis statement
should be a one-sentence claim that presents your perspective and identifies the position you will defend throughout the essay.
Document requirements: The essay must be typed in a 10-12 point easy-to-read font. Your essay should be written in MLA format. As
such, you should use in-text citations (see step four below) and include a proper header at the top left of your paper (name, teacher,
class, date—each on a separate line). The essay should be double-spaced, and the beginning of each paragraph should be indented.
Approaching the essay:
Step One: Identifying the Task

Read through the introductory information, the directions, and important background information for the synthesis essay.

Be sure to note the basic task that you are supposed to complete.
Step Two: Reading through the sources

Read through all of the attached sources.

List two or more major claims presented by each author (author’s purpose).

Find appropriate evidence/quotations you may use in your argument.
Step Three: Develop a Position on the Topic

Re-read the prompt. Based on the evidence provided, develop a position the topic.
Step Four: Interact with the sources

Review the claims you identified in the sources. For each source, choose one claim to which you will respond. Consider
your response equal to commentary you might write in an essay.

Dr. David Joliffe, former chief reader of the AP Language Exam, suggests that the way to approach the synthesis essay is
to think of it as “entering the conversation.”

CITE YOUR SOURCES: Whether you are using direct quotations or paraphrasing the ideas from one of the sources, you
MUST indicate the source by both the author’s name AND the source with the letter number.
Example:
In the excerpt from Johnston’s Revolution, he claims that “society is dangerously dependent upon technology” (Source A).
Organizing the essay:

Use a minimum of three sources as your evidence to support your response to the prompt. Follow the model
below demonstrating how to write a good chunk paragraph to help you embed your evidence and argue your
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

point. Do not forget to include the commentary piece, which will show original thought and make connections
from your evidence to the rest of your paragraph and from your paragraphs back to your thesis statement.
Once class begins, we may discuss variations of the traditional five-paragraph essay. For this assignment, use
that traditional model, with a special focus on well-developed body paragraphs.
Your body paragraphs should clearly show the thesis you are trying to prove, have appropriate evidence from
the text, and include insightful commentary. See the instructions below on writing a good “chunk” paragraph.
Writing a chunk paragraph:
Each body paragraph of your essay should consist of chunks, which means it should follow a basic guideline of these
elements: assertion, context, evidence, commentary, context, evidence, commentary. A chunk paragraph will be at
least eight sentences long, with 1-2 sentences for each element.
(1) Assertion—the point you are making stated confidently and clearly; the argument or claim that you will prove
within the chunk.
(2) Context—background information important to the subject and the introduction of the evidence.
(3) Evidence—usually in the form of a direct quotation. Be sure to introduce and cite the quotation using MLA citation
style.
(4) Commentary—these are your ideas—what is significant about the quotation, what does it mean, and/or how does
it relate back to the assertion at the beginning?
(5) Additional context to set up the next quotation.
(6) Evidence—quotation number two from the text that supports your assertion.
(7-8) Commentary—these are your ideas about significance and meaning for the second quotation. Then, in the last
sentence of commentary, refer back to the assertion and give paragraph closure.
* Sometimes you may wish to include an additional chunk in your paragraph.
SAMPLE CHUNK PARAGRAPH (with 3 chunks)
Assertion
Context
Another example of Bradbury’s portrayal of alienation in Fahrenheit 451 is through Faber’s character. Faber
has a vast amount of knowledge, but no one to share it with until Montag comes along. When explaining how the Evidence
world came to be such an unhappy place, Faber tells Montag that they “are living in a time when flowers are
trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam” (83). This shows how Faber contains
Commentary
valuable insights into what has become of society. He knows that if free thought keeps deteriorating, the world
(notice the
punctuation
and
citation of
page
number.)
will become a wretched place. Faber also mentions that Christ is now used to make “veiled references to certain
commercial products that every worshiper absolutely needs” (81). He is one of the few left in the country who
realizes what is happening to the world. With the television taking over the majority of the people’s lives, not
many are left that retain the ability to fight the “brainwashing” of Bradbury’s futuristic society, and those few
that are able to resist are shunned by the populace and weeded out by the controlling government. Still another
logical declaration Faber makes is that “the magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the
universe together into one garment for us” (83). Faber understands that the ideas and ugly truths concealed
within the books are vital, not the books themselves. If nothing is left to remind us of the bad things that
happened in the past, there is nothing to prevent those atrocities from happening again.
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additional
chunk
Synthesis Essay: The Prompt
A new word has entered the American vocabulary: affluenza. A 1997 PBS documentary titled Affluenza introduced this
new term and defined it: “n. 1. The bloated, sluggish, and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses.
2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste, and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream. 3. An
unsustainable addiction to economic growth.”
Since then, scholars, journalists, political leaders, artists, and even comedians have made America’s ever-increasing
consumption the subject of dire warnings, academic studies, social commentary, campaign promises, and late-night TV jokes.
Carefully read the following sources (including any introductory information). Then, in an essay that synthesizes at
least three of the sources, take a position that supports, opposes, or qualifies the claim that Americans are never satisfied.
They are constantly wanting new things and are never content with what they have. There is a superabundance of “stuff,” and
Americans have lost their sense of meaning. As Sheryl Crow’s 2002 lyrics state, “it’s not having what you want. It’s wanting
what you’ve got.”
Make certain that you take a position and that the essay centers on your argument. Use the sources to support your
reasoning; avoid simply summarizing the sources. You may refer to the sources by their letters (Source A, Source B, etc.), or by
using the descriptions in parentheses.
Source A (Aristotle)
Source B (The Declaration of Independence)
Source C (Mill)
Source D (Cartoon)
Source E (O’Neill)
Source F (Lapham)
Source G (Carnegie)
Source A
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
Certainly the future is obscure to us, while happiness, we claim, is an end and something in every way final…If so, we
shall call happy those among living men in whom these conditions are, and are to be fulfilled.
Happiness is desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else. But honor, pleasure, reason, and every
virtue we choose indeed for themselves, but we choose them also for the sake of happiness, judging that by means of them
we shall be happy. Happiness, on the other hand, no one chooses for the sake of these, nor, in general, for anything other
than itself. Happiness, then is something final and self-sufficient.
He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for
some chance period but throughout a complete life.
To judge from the lives that men lead, most men seem to identify the good, or happiness, with pleasure: which is
the reason why they love the life of enjoyment. The mass of mankind are evidently quite slavish in their tastes, preferring a
life suitable to beasts.
With regard to what happiness is (men) differ, and the many do not give the same account as the wise. For the
former think it is some plain and obvious thing, like pleasure, wealth, or honor. They differ, however, from one another—and
often even the same man identified it with different things, with health when he is ill, with wealth when he is poor.
Source B
The the
Declaration
Independence
From
opening of
paragraph
of The Declaration of Independence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights: that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers form the Consent of the Governed . . .
Source C
The
following
is an excerpt
fromby
Chapter
2 entitled
Utilitarianism Is.” British philosopher, in 1863.
From
Utilitarianism,
written
John Stuart
Mill,“What
an eighteenth-century
. . . The creed which accepts as the foundation of moral, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions
are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By
happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure . . .
. . . no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus, no person of
feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, even though they should be persuaded that the fool, the dunce, or the
rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they are with theirs. They would not resign what they possess more than he for the
most complete satisfaction of all desires which they have in common with him. It they ever fancy they would, it is only in
cases of unhappiness so extreme, that to escape from it they would exchange their lot for almost any other, however
undesirable in their own eyes. A being of higher faculties [humans] requires more to make him happy, is capable probably of
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more acute suffering, and certainly accessible to it at more points, than one of the inferior type [animals]: but in spite of
these liabilities, he can never really wish to sink into what he feels to be a lower grade of existence. . . . Whoever supposes
that this preference takes place at a sacrifice of happiness—that the superior being, in anything like equal circumstances, is
not happier than the inferior—confounds two very different ideas, of happiness and content. It is indisputable that the being
whose capacities of enjoyment are low, has the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied; and a highly endowed being
will always feel that any happiness which he can look for, as the world is constituted, is imperfect. But he can learn to bear
its imperfections, but only because he feels not at all the good which those imperfections qualify. It is better to be a human
being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than the fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are
of different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows
both sides.
Source D
Cartoon by Jim Sizemore
Available at http://cartoonstock.com/blowup.asp?imageref=jsi0087&atirist=Sizemore,+Jim&topic=consumerism.
This cartoon appeared in a recent issue of The New Yorker.
Source E
O’Neill, Jesse H. The Golden Ghetto: A Psychology of Affluence, The Affluenza Project: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1997.
The following is adapted from passages in Jesse H. O’Neill’s book and from the mission statement of The Affluenza Project
founded by O’Neill. Available at http://www.affluenza.com.
The mailaise that currently grips our country comes not from the fact that we don’t have enough wealth, but from a
terrifying knowledge that has begun to enter our consciousness that we have based our entire lives, our entire
culture and way of being on the belief that “just a little bit more” will finally buy happiness.
Although many people in our culture are beginning to question the assumptions of the American Dream, we still
live in a time of compulsive and wasteful consumerism.

Statistics to consider:
Per capita consumption in the United States has increased 45 percent in the past twenty years.
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


During the same period, quality of life as measured by the index of social health has decreased by roughly the
same percentage.
The average working woman plays with her children forty minutes a week—and shops six hours.
Ninety-three percent of teenage girls list shopping as their favorite pastime.
Source F
Lapham, Lewis. Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on Our Civil Religion, Grove Press: New York, 1988.
The following is a passage from Mr. Lapham’s text.
I think it fair to say that the current ardor of the American faith in money easily surpasses the degrees of intensity
achieved by other socieities in other times and places. Money means so many things to us—spiritual as well as
temporal—that we are at a loss to know how to hold its majesty at bay . . .
Henry Adams in his autobiography remarks that although the Americans weren’t much good as
materialists they had been “so deflected by the pursuit of money” that they could turn “in no other direction.”
The natural distrust of the contemplative temperament arises less from the innate philistinism than from a
suspicion of anything that cannot be counted, stuffed, framed or mounted over the fireplace in the den. Men
remain free to rise or fall in the world, and if they fail it must be because they willed it so. The visible signs of
wealth testify to an inward state of grace, and without at least some of these talismans posted in one’s house or
on one’s person an American loses all hope of demonstrating to himself the theorem of his happiness. Seeing is
believing, and if an American success is to count for anything in the world it must be clothed in the raiment of
property. As often is not it isn’t the money iteself that means anything; it is the use of money as the currency of
the soul.
Against the faith in money, other men in other times and places have raised up countervailing faiths in
family, honor, religion, intellect and social class. The merchant princes of medieval Europe would have looked
upon the American devotion as sterile stupidity; the ancient Greek would have regarded it as a form of insanity.
Even now, in the last decades of a century commonly defined as American, a good many societies both in Europe
and Asia manage to balance the desire for wealth against the other claims of the human spirit. An Englishman of
modest means can remain more or less content with the distinction of an aristocratic name or the consolation of
a flourishing garden; the Germans show the obscure university professors the deference accorded by Americans
only to celebrity; the Soviets honor the holding of political power; in France a rich man is a rich man, to whom
everybody grants the substantial powers that his riches command but tho whom nobody grants the respect due
to a member of the National Academy. But in the United States a rich man is perceived as being necessarily both
good and wise, which is an absurdity that would be seen as such not only by a Frenchman but also by a Russian.
Not that the Americans are greedier than the French, or less intellectual than the Germans, or more venal than
the Russians, but to what other tribunal can an anxious and supposedly egalitarian people submit their definitions
of the good, the true and the beautiful if not to the judgment of the bottom line?
Source G
The following is an excerpt from “Wealth” written by Andrew Carnegie1. published in North American Review, CCCXCI, June
1889.
The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still
bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship. The conditions of human life have not only been
changed, but revolutionized, within the past few hundred years. In former days there was little difference
between the dwelling dress, food, and environment of the chief and those of his retainers. The Indians are today
where civilized man then was. When visiting the Sioux, I was led to the wigwam of the chief. It was just like the
others in external appearance, and even within the difference was trifling between it and those of the poor of his
braves. The contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer with us today measures
the change which has come with civilization.
This change, however, is not to be deplored, but welcomed as highly beneficial. It is well, nay, essential
for the progress of the race, that the houses of some should be homes for all that is highest and best in literature,
and the arts, and for all the refinements of civilization, rather than that none should be so. Much better this great
irregularity than universal squalor. Without wealth there can be no Maecenas2. The “good old times” were not
good old times. Neither master no servant was as well situated then as today. A relapse to old conditions would
be disastrous to both—not the least so to him who severs—and would sweep away civilization with it. But
whether the change be for good or ill, it is upon us, beyond our power to alter, and therefore to be accepted and
made the best of. It is waste of time to criticize the inevitable.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Late nineteenth-century American capitalist and philanthropist
2. Patron of the arts in ancient Rome
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