| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: in the pools of water left by the retiring tide, these animals
were not easily caught. By means of their long arms and
suckers, they could drag their bodies into very narrow crevices;
and when thus fixed, it required great force to remove
them. At other times they darted tail first, with the rapidity
of an arrow, from one side of the pool to the other, at the
same instant discolouring the water with a dark chestnut-brown
ink. These animals also escape detection by a very
extraordinary, chameleon-like power of changing their colour.
They appear to vary their tints according to the nature
of the ground over which they pass: when in deep water,
 The Voyage of the Beagle |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: Gods have power either to grant our requests, or to send us the contrary of
what we ask.
And now I will relate to you a story which I have heard from certain of our
elders. It chanced that when the Athenians and Lacedaemonians were at war,
our city lost every battle by land and sea and never gained a victory. The
Athenians being annoyed and perplexed how to find a remedy for their
troubles, decided to send and enquire at the shrine of Ammon. Their envoys
were also to ask, 'Why the Gods always granted the victory to the
Lacedaemonians?' 'We,' (they were to say,) 'offer them more and finer
sacrifices than any other Hellenic state, and adorn their temples with
gifts, as nobody else does; moreover, we make the most solemn and costly
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair: should submit to the decisions of the Church, even at the cost of
sacrificing political principles." And to the same effect Mgr.
Preston, In New York City, Jan. 1, 1888: "The man who says, 'I
will take my faith from Peter, but I will not take my politics
from Peter,' is not a true Catholic."
Such is the Papal machine; and not a day passes that it does not
discover some new scheme to advance the Papal glory; a "Catholic
battle-ship" in the United States navy; Catholic chaplains on all
ships of the navy; Catholic holidays---such as Columbus Day--to
be celebrated by all Protestants in America; thirty million
dollars worth of church property exempted from taxation in New
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