| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: lighter than air, easy in ascent, and comparatively safe in descent,
but floating helplessly before any breeze that took them; and on
the other, flying machines that flew only in theory--vast flat
structures heavier than air, propelled and kept up by heavy engines
and for the most part smashing at the first descent. But, neglecting
the fact that the inevitable final collapse rendered them impossible,
the weight of the flying machines gave them this theoretical
advantage, that they could go through the air against a wind,
a necessary condition if aerial navigation was to have any practical
value. It is Filmer's particular merit that he perceived the way
in which the contrasted and hitherto incompatible merits of balloon
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: very strange and striking in its character. It is not polar, for
there is no attraction or repulsion.' And then, as if startled by
his own utterance, he asks--'What is the nature of the mechanical
force which turns the crystal round, and makes it affect a magnet?'...
'I do not remember,' he continues 'heretofore such a case of force
as the present one, where a body is brought into position only,
without attraction or repulsion.'
Plucker, the celebrated geometer already mentioned, who pursued
experimental physics for many years of his life with singular
devotion and success, visited Faraday in those days, and repeated
before him his beautiful experiments on magneto-optic action.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: did with the money. A suit of clothes, a new stove, and a set of
kitchen utensils for the log house opposite Grosse Ile, a trip to
Quebec, a little game of "Blof Americain" in the back room of the
Hotel du Nord,--that was the end of the money.
This is not a Sunday-school story. Jean was no saint. Even as a
hero he had his weak points. But after his own fashion he was a
pretty good kind of a marquis. He took his headache the next
morning as a matter of course, and his empty pocket as a trick of
fortune. With the nobility, he knew very well, such things often
happen; but the nobility do not complain about it. They go ahead,
as if it was a bagatelle.
|
