| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: supplant their parent-forms until they have been modified and perfected in
some considerable degree. According to this view, the chance of
discovering in a formation in any one country all the early stages of
transition between any two forms, is small, for the successive changes are
supposed to have been local or confined to some one spot. Most marine
animals have a wide range; and we have seen that with plants it is those
which have the widest range, that oftenest present varieties; so that with
shells and other marine animals, it is probably those which have had the
widest range, far exceeding the limits of the known geological formations
of Europe, which have oftenest given rise, first to local varieties and
ultimately to new species; and this again would greatly lessen the chance
On the Origin of Species |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: entirety, a merely human quality, but it is in part divine. It is a
gift plainly given to those truly initiated[16] in the mystery of
self-command. Whereas despotism over unwilling slaves, the heavenly
ones give, as it seems to me, to those whom they deem worthy to live
the life of Tantalus in Hades, of whom it is written[17] "he consumes
unending days in apprehension of a second death."
[11] According to Sturz, "Lex." s.v., the {epitropos} is (as a rule,
see "Mem." II. viii.) a slave or freedman, the {epistates} a free
man. See "Mem." III. v. 18.
[12] Apparently a homely formula, like "make hay whilst the sun
shines," "a stitch in time saves nine."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: questionable habits of abortion, child-murder, and unnatural
crime.
The only explanation of such conduct (though one which the men
themselves will hardly accept) is this--that they secretly share
somewhat in the doubt which many educated men have of the
correctness of their inductions; that these same laws of political
economy (where they leave the plain and safe subject-matter of
trade) have been arrived at somewhat too hastily; that they are,
in plain English, not quite sound enough yet to build upon; and
that we must wait for a few more facts before we begin any
theories. Be it so. At least, these men, in their present temper
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