| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: cloud. And instead of a lone sea-beach, we found ourselves
once more inhabiting a high mountainside, with the clear
green country far below us, and the light smoke of Calistoga
blowing in the air.
This was the great Russian campaign for that season. Now and
then, in the early morning, a little white lakelet of fog
would be seen far down in Napa Valley; but the heights were
not again assailed, nor was the surrounding world again shut
off from Silverado.
THE TOLL HOUSE
THE Toll House, standing alone by the wayside under nodding
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Land of Footprints by Stewart Edward White: had passed the last villager-just the proper dramatic pause, you
observe-the bushes parted and a splendid, straight, springy young
man came into view and stepped smilingly across the space that
separated us. And about eight or ten seconds after his
emergence-again just the right dramatic pause-the bushes parted
again to give entrance to four of the quaintest little dolls of
wives. These advanced all abreast, parted, and took up positions
two either side the smiling chief. This youth was evidently in
the height of fashion, his hair braided in a tight queue bound
with skin, his ears dangling with ornaments, heavy necklaces
around his neck, and armlets etc., ad lib. His robe was of fine
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: but unequally, related to each other, and in having restricted ranges.
Before applying the principles arrived at in the last chapter to organic
beings in a state of nature, we must briefly discuss whether these latter
are subject to any variation. To treat this subject at all properly, a
long catalogue of dry facts should be given; but these I shall reserve for
my future work. Nor shall I here discuss the various definitions which
have been given of the term species. No one definition has as yet
satisfied all naturalists; yet every naturalist knows vaguely what he means
when he speaks of a species. Generally the term includes the unknown
element of a distinct act of creation. The term 'variety' is almost
equally difficult to define; but here community of descent is almost
 On the Origin of Species |