Read the passage from "By the Waters of Babylon.” Then I saw their fate come upon them and that was terrible past speech. It came upon them as they walked the streets of their city. I have been in the fights with the Forest People—I have seen men die. But this was not like that. When gods war with gods, they use weapons we do not know. It was fire falling out of the sky and a mist that poisoned. It was the time of the Great Burning and the Destruction. They ran about like ants in the streets of their city—poor gods, poor gods! Then the towers began to fall. A few escaped—yes, a few. The legends tell it. But, even after the city had become a Dead Place, for many years the poison was still in the ground. I saw it happen, I saw the last of them die. It was darkness over the broken city and I wept.

Which theme is best established by the conflict in this passage?

Advances in technology can lead to devastation.
War is an unfortunate but necessary path to growth.
Those who come before us determine the future.
Coming of age requires risk-taking and bravery.

Asap plz which sentence from this excerpt of jefferson davis’s inaugural address indicates that secession was the confederacy’s way of reclaiming its legal powers? an agricultural people, whose chief interest is the export of a commodity required in every manufacturing country, our true policy is peace, and the freest trade which our necessities will permit . . there can be but little rivalry between ours and any manufacturing or navigating community, such as the northeastern states of the american union. it must follow, therefore, that a mutual interest would invite good will and kind offices. if, however, passion or the lust of dominion should cloud the judgment or inflame the ambition of those states, we must prepare to meet the emergency and to maintain, by the final arbitrament of the sword, the position which we have assumed among the nations of the earth. we have entered upon the career of independence, and it must be inflexibly pursued. through many years of controversy with our late associates, the northern states, we have vainly endeavored to secure tranquillity, and to obtain respect for the rights to which we were entitled. as a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separation; and henceforth our energies must be directed to the conduct of our own affairs, and the perpetuity of the confederacy which we have formed. if a just perception of mutual interest shall permit us peaceably to pursue our separate political career, my most earnest desire will have been fulfilled. but, if this be denied to us, and the integrity of our territory and jurisdiction be assailed, it will but remain for us, with firm resolve, to appeal to arms and invoke the blessings of providence on a just cause . .