| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells: but myself, and almost certainly I should make some blunder that would
bring upon me the mockery of every up-to-date student of mathematical
physics in the country. The best thing I can do therefore is, I think to
give my impressions in my own inexact language, without any attempt to
wear a garment of knowledge to which I have no claim.
The object of Mr. Cavor's search was a substance that should be "opaque "
- he used some other word I have forgotten, but "opaque" conveys the idea
- to "all forms of radiant energy." "Radiant energy," he made me
understand, was anything like light or heat, or those Rontgen Rays there
was so much talk about a year or so ago, or the electric waves of Marconi,
or gravitation. All these things, he said, radiate out from centres, and
The First Men In The Moon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: boy of ten: what was he else, being a slave of sixty? He had
passed all his years in school, fed, clad, thought for, commanded;
and had grown familiar and coquetted with the fear of punishment.
By terror you may drive men long, but not far. Here, in Apemama,
they work at the constant and the instant peril of their lives; and
are plunged in a kind of lethargy of laziness. It is common to see
one go afield in his stiff mat ungirt, so that he walks elbows-in
like a trussed fowl; and whatsoever his right hand findeth to do,
the other must be off duty holding on his clothes. It is common to
see two men carrying between them on a pole a single bucket of
water. To make two bites of a cherry is good enough: to make two
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: in this be equal to the most stupid infant of its kind or at least to one
that was crack-brained, unless the soul of brutes were of a nature wholly
different from ours. And we ought not to confound speech with the natural
movements which indicate the passions, and can be imitated by machines as
well as manifested by animals; nor must it be thought with certain of the
ancients, that the brutes speak, although we do not understand their
language. For if such were the case, since they are endowed with many
organs analogous to ours, they could as easily communicate their thoughts
to us as to their fellows. It is also very worthy of remark, that, though
there are many animals which manifest more industry than we in certain of
their actions, the same animals are yet observed to show none at all in
Reason Discourse |
