Literature and the American Revolution: Mastery lest
Submit Test
Which two excerpts in the passage supports the claim that Paine believed the cost of the colonists' struggle against the British was well
worth the outcome?
The Crisis, No.:
by Thomas Paine (adapted excerpt)
I turn with the warm ardor of a friend to those who have nobly stood, and are yet determined to stand the matter out: I call not upon
few, but upon all: not on this
state or that state, but on
every state: up and help us: lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too
much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world,
but hope and virtue could survive. that the city and
that in the depth of wanter, when nothing
the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it.
Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but "show your
faith
by your works," that you may be blessed. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold. the effect or the blessing will
reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor.
noc now is cold: the children
will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels
will criticize his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made
them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather
business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and
strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. Tis the
whose conscience approves his conduct. will pursue his principles. My
own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Noz all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have
induced me to support an offensive, for I think
wrong; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and
threatens me, or those that are in it. and to "bind me n all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it?
