| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: flora, are common to Europe, enormously remote as these two points are; and
there are many closely allied species. On the lofty mountains of
equatorial America a host of peculiar species belonging to European genera
occur. On the highest mountains of Brazil, some few European genera were
found by Gardner, which do not exist in the wide intervening hot countries.
So on the Silla of Caraccas the illustrious Humboldt long ago found species
belonging to genera characteristic of the Cordillera. On the mountains of
Abyssinia, several European forms and some few representatives of the
peculiar flora of the Cape of Good Hope occur. At the Cape of Good Hope a
very few European species, believed not to have been introduced by man, and
on the mountains, some few representative European forms are found, which
On the Origin of Species |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: you will never have more than the works can easily absorb. The miners
find no limit of depth in sinking shafts or laterally in piercing
galleries. To open cuttings in new directions to-day is just as
possible as it was in former times. In fact no one can take on himself
to say whether there is more ore in the regions already cut into, or
in those where the pick has not yet struck.[33] Well then, it may be
asked, why is it that there is not the same rush to make new cuttings
now as in former times? The answer is, because the people concerned
with the mines are poorer nowadays. The attempt to restart operations,
renew plant, etc., is of recent date, and any one who ventures to open
up a new area runs a considerable risk. Supposing he hits upon a
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: of schemes for writing others. All my attempts to recover the lost
work failed. The passages here reprinted are from some odd leaves
of a first draft. The play is, of course, not unlike Salome, though
it was written in English. It expanded Wilde's favourite theory
that when you convert some one to an idea, you lose your faith in
it; the same motive runs through Mr. W. H. Honorius the hermit, so
far as I recollect the story, falls in love with the courtesan who
has come to tempt him, and he reveals to her the secret of the love
of God. She immediately becomes a Christian, and is murdered by
robbers. Honorius the hermit goes back to Alexandria to pursue a
life of pleasure. Two other similar plays Wilde invented in prison,
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