| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: collected on the coast sixteen species of sea-shells, of which
seven, as far as he knows, are confined to this island. Birds
and insects, [4] as might have been expected, are very few in
number; indeed I believe all the birds have been introduced
within late years. Partridges and pheasants are tolerably
abundant; the island is much too English not to be subject
to strict game-laws. I was told of a more unjust sacrifice to
such ordinances than I ever heard of even in England. The
poor people formerly used to burn a plant, which grows on the
coast-rocks, and export the soda from its ashes; but a
peremptory order came out prohibiting this practice, and giving
The Voyage of the Beagle |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: For know, my heart stands armed in mine ear,
And will not let a false sound enter there; 780
'Lest the deceiving harmony should run
Into the quiet closure of my breast;
And then my little heart were quite undone,
In his bedchamber to be barr'd of rest. 784
No, lady, no; my heart longs not to groan,
But soundly sleeps, while now it sleeps alone.
'What have you urg'd that I cannot reprove?
The path is smooth that leadeth on to danger; 790
I hate not love, but your device in love
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: that; without doubt he had loved the bottle, and lived the
life of Jack ashore. But at the end of these adventures,
here he came; and, the place hitting his fancy, down he sat
to make a new life of it, far from crimps and the salt sea.
And the very sight of his ranche had done him good. It was
"the handsomest spot in the Californy mountains." "Isn't it
handsome, now?" he said. Every penny he makes goes into that
ranche to make it handsomer. Then the climate, with the sea-
breeze every afternoon in the hottest summer weather, had
gradually cured the sciatica; and his sister and niece were
now domesticated with him for company - or, rather, the niece
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