Which sentences in this excerpt from "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau support the transcendentalist idea that the ind
ividual is more important than government or society? This American government — what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves…
But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?- in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislation? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.
This question is one of those with many answers if I am not wrong. The correct answers would be "I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right," and "It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will."
Don't judge me if I'm wrong... I'm a student too....
<span>D is definitely one you should choose, but again it sounds like there should be more words at the end. It is our right as individuals to respect the law but not so much that we give up our rights as individuals. I would still choose D.</span>
