| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: terrestrial productions to pass from one to the other. No geologist will
dispute that great mutations of level have occurred within the period of
existing organisms. Edward Forbes insisted that all the islands in the
Atlantic must recently have been connected with Europe or Africa, and
Europe likewise with America. Other authors have thus hypothetically
bridged over every ocean, and have united almost every island to some
mainland. If indeed the arguments used by Forbes are to be trusted, it
must be admitted that scarcely a single island exists which has not
recently been united to some continent. This view cuts the Gordian knot of
the dispersal of the same species to the most distant points, and removes
many a difficulty: but to the best of any judgment we are not authorized
On the Origin of Species |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare: And yet she is inferior to none.
SLY.
Am I a lord? and have I such a lady?
Or do I dream? Or have I dream'd till now?
I do not sleep: I see, I hear, I speak;
I smell sweet savours, and I feel soft things:
Upon my life, I am a lord indeed;
And not a tinker, nor Christophero Sly.
Well, bring our lady hither to our sight;
And once again, a pot o' the smallest ale.
SECOND SERVANT.
The Taming of the Shrew |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: Can come to being thus at fixed time.
Likewise, the sun's eclipses and the moon's
Far occultations rightly thou mayst deem
As due to several causes. For, indeed,
Why should the moon be able to shut out
Earth from the light of sun, and on the side
To earthward thrust her high head under sun,
Opposing dark orb to his glowing beams-
And yet, at same time, one suppose the effect
Could not result from some one other body
Which glides devoid of light forevermore?
Of The Nature of Things |
