| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Woodman." For it has occurred to me that it is a good thing to have a Royal
Treasurer who is made of money. What do you think?"
"I think," said the little Queen, smiling, "that your friend must be the
richest man in all the world."
"I am," returned the Scarecrow. "but not on account of my money. For I
consider brains far superior to money, in every way. You may have noticed
that if one has money without brains, he cannot use it to advantage; but if
one has brains without money, they will enable him to live comfortably to
the end of his days."
"At the same time," declared the Tin Woodman, "you must acknowledge that a
good heart is a thing that brains can not create, and that money can not
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: believe that the conditions of life, from their action on the reproductive
system, are so far of the highest importance as causing variability. I do
not believe that variability is an inherent and necessary contingency,
under all circumstances, with all organic beings, as some authors have
thought. The effects of variability are modified by various degrees of
inheritance and of reversion. Variability is governed by many unknown
laws, more especially by that of correlation of growth. Something may be
attributed to the direct action of the conditions of life. Something must
be attributed to use and disuse. The final result is thus rendered
infinitely complex. In some cases, I do not doubt that the intercrossing
of species, aboriginally distinct, has played an important part in the
On the Origin of Species |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: watch the stars and know that no speculations of ours can reach
those who there live or die untouched. Here beside her lay one
who was dead, yet living, in her temporary trance, and to what
would she wake, when it should end? This young creature had
been sent into the world so fresh, so beautiful, so richly
gifted; everything about her physical organization was so
delicate and lovely; she had seemed like heliotrope, like a
tube-rose in her purity and her passion (who was it said, "No
heart is pure that is not passionate"?); and here was the end!
Nothing external could have placed her where she was, no
violence, no outrage, no evil of another's doing, could have
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