| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: follows from the high geometrical ratio of increase which is common to all
organic beings. This high rate of increase is proved by calculation, by
the effects of a succession of peculiar seasons, and by the results of
naturalisation, as explained in the third chapter. More individuals are
born than can possibly survive. A grain in the balance will determine
which individual shall live and which shall die,--which variety or species
shall increase in number, and which shall decrease, or finally become
extinct. As the individuals of the same species come in all respects into
the closest competition with each other, the struggle will generally be
most severe between them; it will be almost equally severe between the
varieties of the same species, and next in severity between the species of
On the Origin of Species |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Last War: A World Set Free by H. G. Wells: jumpy for Lawson to tell him he overworked and needed a holiday.
They sat down at a little table outside the County Council house
of Golders Hill Park and sent one of the waiters to the Bull and
Bush for a couple of bottles of beer, no doubt at Lawson's
suggestion. The beer warmed Holsten's rather dehumanised system.
He began to tell Lawson as clearly as he could to what his great
discovery amounted. Lawson feigned attention, but indeed he had
neither the knowledge nor the imagination to understand. 'In the
end, before many years are out, this must eventually change war,
transit, lighting, building, and every sort of manufacture, even
agriculture, every material human concern----'
The Last War: A World Set Free |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: [38] "Take my exercise."
[39] Zeune cf. Max. Tyr. "Diss." vii. 9; xxxix. 5.
Yes, that I will swear to (the other answered), and at first I stood
aghast, I feared me you had parted with your senses; but when I heard
your explanation, pretty much what you have just now told us, I went
home and--I will not say, began to dance myself (it is an
accomplishment I have not been taught as yet), but I fell to
sparring,[40] an art of which I have a very pretty knowledge.
[40] "Sparring," etc., an art which Quintil. "Inst. Or." i. 11, 17,
attributes to Socrates. Cf. Herod. vi. 129 concerning
Hippocleides; and Rich, "Dict. of Antiq." s.v. "Chironomia."
The Symposium |
