| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: that very many structures have been created for beauty in the eyes of man,
or for mere variety. This doctrine, if true, would be absolutely fatal to
my theory. Yet I fully admit that many structures are of no direct use to
their possessors. Physical conditions probably have had some little effect
on structure, quite independently of any good thus gained. Correlation of
growth has no doubt played a most important part, and a useful modification
of one part will often have entailed on other parts diversified changes of
no direct use. So again characters which formerly were useful, or which
formerly had arisen from correlation of growth, or from other unknown
cause, may reappear from the law of reversion, though now of no direct use.
The effects of sexual selection, when displayed in beauty to charm the
On the Origin of Species |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: "Enough," says Bill. "In ten minutes I shall cross
the Central, Southern and Middle Western States, and be
legging it trippingly for the Canadian border."
And, as dark as it was, and as fat as Bill was, and as
good a runner as I am, he was a good mile and a half
out of Summit before I could catch up with him.
THE MARRY MONTH OF MAY
PRITHEE, smite the poet in the eye when he would
sing to you praises of the month of May. It is a month
presided over by the spirits of mischief and madness.
Pixies and flibbertigibbets haunt the budding woods:
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: settled them in a part of the island, which I will describe. Looking
towards the sea, but in the centre of the whole island, there was a plain
which is said to have been the fairest of all plains and very fertile.
Near the plain again, and also in the centre of the island at a distance of
about fifty stadia, there was a mountain not very high on any side. In
this mountain there dwelt one of the earth-born primeval men of that
country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named Leucippe, and they
had an only daughter who was called Cleito. The maiden had already reached
womanhood, when her father and mother died; Poseidon fell in love with her
and had intercourse with her, and breaking the ground, inclosed the hill in
which she dwelt all round, making alternate zones of sea and land larger
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