| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells: and things like that. You know perfectly well you didn't do it for that;
but at the time my question took you by surprise, and you felt you ought
to have something to look like a motive. Really you conducted researches
because you had to. It's your twist."
"Perhaps it is -"
"It isn't one man in a million has that twist. Most men want - well,
various things, but very few want knowledge for its own sake. I don't, I
know perfectly well. Now, these Selenites seem to be a driving, busy sort
of being, but how do you know that even the most intelligent will take an
interest in us or our world? I don't believe they'll even know we have a
world. They never come out at night - they'd freeze if they did. They've
The First Men In The Moon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: the skin apparently does not answer to mental excitement so
readily as with the natives of the northern and southern parts
of the continent, who have long been exposed to great vicissitudes
of climate; for Humboldt quotes without a protest the sneer
of the Spaniard, "How can those be trusted, who know not how to
blush?"[14] Von Spix and Martius, in speaking of the aborigines
of Brazil, assert that they cannot properly be said to blush;
"it was only after long intercourse with the whites, and after
receiving some education, that we perceived in the Indians
a change of colour expressive of the emotions of their minds."[15]
It is, however, incredible that the power of blushing could
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: heels and overmastered their rear ranks, but he did nothing of the
sort: what he did was, to crash front to front against the Thebans.
And so with shields interlocked they shoved and fought and fought and
shoved, dealing death and yielding life. There was no shouting, nor
yet was there even silence, but a strange and smothered utterance,
such as rage and battle vent.[9] At last a portion of the Thebans
forced their way through towards Helicon, but many were slain in that
departure.
[9] Or, "as the rage and fury of battle may give vent to." See
"Cyrop." VII. i. 38-40. A graphic touch omitted in "Hell." IV.
iii. 19.
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