| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: suffer most, but this is not invariably the case. With plants there is a
vast destruction of seeds, but, from some observations which I have made, I
believe that it is the seedlings which suffer most from germinating in
ground already thickly stocked with other plants. Seedlings, also, are
destroyed in vast numbers by various enemies; for instance, on a piece of
ground three feet long and two wide, dug and cleared, and where there could
be no choking from other plants, I marked all the seedlings of our native
weeds as they came up, and out of the 357 no less than 295 were destroyed,
chiefly by slugs and insects. If turf which has long been mown, and the
case would be the same with turf closely browsed by quadrupeds, be let to
grow, the more vigorous plants gradually kill the less vigorous, though
On the Origin of Species |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: right thing, the opportune, graceful, exquisite thing--except,
when he did very cruel things--bent upon making people happy
when their existence touched his, just as he insisted that his
material environment should be beautiful; lavishing upon those
near him all the warmth and radiance of his rich nature, all the
homage of the poet and troubadour, and, when they were no longer
near, forgetting--for that also was a part of Adriance's gift.
Three weeks after Everett had sent his cable, when he made
his daily call at the gaily painted ranch house, he found
Katharine laughing like a schoolgirl. "Have you ever thought,"
she said, as he entered the music room, "how much these seances
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: purity and virtue. When Felix de Vandenesse fell deeply in love
with her and began to show her certain attentions, I had only to
let her see the danger, and she instantly thanked me so
affectionately that I was moved to tears. She said that her
dignity and reputation demanded that she should not close her
doors abruptly to any man, but that she knew well how to dismiss
him. She did, in fact, receive him so coldly that the affair all
ended for the best. We have never had any other subject of dispute
--if, indeed, a friendly talk could be called a dispute--in all
our married life.
And now, my dear Henri, I bid you farewell in the spirit of a man.
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