It is manifest, therefore, that each State must have a government, containing at least these distinct departments; and whether this government is organized periodically, under mere laws perpetually re-enacted, and subject to perpetual changes without reference to forms, or [471] under standing and fundamental laws, changeable only in a prescribed form, and being so far what is called a constitution, it is apparent that there must be a "form of government" possessed of these distinct agencies.
— from History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States, Vol. 2 With Notices of Its Principle Framers by George Ticknor Curtis

"If an upright stick, a foot long, casts a shadow three feet long, the shadow of another stick beside it, at the same time, is proportionally long."
— from The Galaxy Vol. 23, No. 1 by Various