| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: living in shallow water, are more brightly coloured than those of the same
species further north or from greater depths. Gould believes that birds of
the same species are more brightly coloured under a clear atmosphere, than
when living on islands or near the coast. So with insects, Wollaston is
convinced that residence near the sea affects their colours. Moquin-Tandon
gives a list of plants which when growing near the sea-shore have their
leaves in some degree fleshy, though not elsewhere fleshy. Several other
such cases could be given.
The fact of varieties of one species, when they range into the zone of
habitation of other species, often acquiring in a very slight degree some
of the characters of such species, accords with our view that species of
On the Origin of Species |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: at the parlor door.
"Now, Sam, tell us distinctly how the matter was," said
Mr. Shelby. "Where is Eliza, if you know?"
"Wal, Mas'r, I saw her, with my own eyes, a crossin' on
the floatin' ice. She crossed most 'markably; it wasn't no less
nor a miracle; and I saw a man help her up the 'Hio side, and then
she was lost in the dusk."
"Sam, I think this rather apocryphal,--this miracle.
Crossing on floating ice isn't so easily done," said Mr. Shelby.
"Easy! couldn't nobody a done it, without de Lord. Why, now,"
said Sam, "'t was jist dis yer way. Mas'r Haley, and me,
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: but the working man, when sober, takes an extreme and even melancholy
view of personal deportment. A fifth-form schoolboy is not more
careful of dignity. He dares not be comical; his fun must escape
from him unprepared, and above all, it must be unaccompanied by any
physical demonstration. I like his society under most circumstances,
but let me never again join with him in public gambols.
But the impulse to sing was strong, and triumphed over modesty and
even the inclemencies of sea and sky. On this rough Saturday night,
we got together by the main deck-house, in a place sheltered from the
wind and rain. Some clinging to a ladder which led to the hurricane
deck, and the rest knitting arms or taking hands, we made a ring to
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