| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: whereas not one other species has hitherto been found in any tertiary
formation: yet it is now known that the genus Chthamalus existed during
the chalk period. The molluscan genus Chiton offers a partially analogous
case.
With respect to the terrestrial productions which lived during the
Secondary and Palaeozoic periods, it is superfluous to state that our
evidence from fossil remains is fragmentary in an extreme degree. For
instance, not a land shell is known belonging to either of these vast
periods, with one exception discovered by Sir C. Lyell in the carboniferous
strata of North America. In regard to mammiferous remains, a single glance
at the historical table published in the Supplement to Lyell's Manual, will
On the Origin of Species |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: That filled and strengthened hope in earlier years;
If still, with friends averted, fate severe,
A glad, untainted cheerfulness be mine
To greet the unruly time of year,
The Feast of Valentine.
Priest, I am none of thine, and see
In the perspective of still hopeful youth
That Truth shall triumph over thee -
Truth to one's self - I know no other truth.
I see strange days for thee and thine, O priest,
And how your doctrines, fallen one by one,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: it is a fact, that the villains to whom those de-
fenceless creatures are sent, not only flog them
as they are ordered, but frequently compel them
to submit to the greatest indignity. Oh! if there
is any one thing under the wide canopy of heaven,
horrible enough to stir a man's soul, and to make
his very blood boil, it is the thought of his dear
wife, his unprotected sister, or his young and
virtuous daughters, struggling to save themselves
from falling a prey to such demons!
It always appears strange to me that any one
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
