| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Human Drift by Jack London: For an immense period of time China's population has remained at
400,000,000--the saturation point. The only reason that the
Yellow River periodically drowns millions of Chinese is that there
is no other land for those millions to farm. And after every such
catastrophe the wave of human life rolls up and now millions flood
out upon that precarious territory. They are driven to it,
because they are pressed remorselessly against subsistence. It is
inevitable that China, sooner or later, like Japan, will learn and
put into application our own superior food-getting efficiency.
And when that time comes, it is likewise inevitable that her
population will increase by unguessed millions until it again
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: insertion. And this is confirmed by the name which was given by them to
the rational investigation of futurity, whether made by the help of birds
or of other signs--this, for as much as it is an art which supplies from
the reasoning faculty mind (nous) and information (istoria) to human
thought (oiesis) they originally termed oionoistike, but the word has been
lately altered and made sonorous by the modern introduction of the letter
Omega (oionoistike and oionistike), and in proportion as prophecy (mantike)
is more perfect and august than augury, both in name and fact, in the same
proportion, as the ancients testify, is madness superior to a sane mind
(sophrosune) for the one is only of human, but the other of divine origin.
Again, where plagues and mightiest woes have bred in certain families,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: the bread-and-butter stage, and the roast-beef stage. I should
say you were at the bread-and-butter stage." He handed him the plate.
"Now, I should advise a hearty tea, then a brisk walk on deck;
and by dinner-time you'll be clamouring for beef, eh?" He went
off laughing, excusing himself on the score of business.
"What a splendid fellow he is!" said Richard. "Always keen
on something."
"Yes," said Helen, "he's always been like that."
"This is a great undertaking of his," Richard continued.
"It's a business that won't stop with ships, I should say.
We shall see him in Parliament, or I'm much mistaken. He's the kind
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