| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: gleaming in a bush by the side of the road. This was a Barbarian
crouching upon his heels, and smeared with dust, that he might not be
distinguished from the colour of the foliage; or perhaps when passing
along a ravine those on the wings would suddenly hear the rolling of
stones, and raising their eyes would perceive a bare-footed man
bounding along through the openings of the gorge.
Meanwhile Utica and Hippo-Zarytus were free since the Mercenaries were
no longer besieging them. Hamilcar commanded them to come to his
assistance. But not caring to compromise themselves, they answered him
with vague words, with compliments and excuses.
He went up again abruptly into the North, determined to open up one of
Salammbo |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: look at, he quietly remains (in his proper place), indifferent to
them. How should the lord of a myriad chariots carry himself lightly
before the kingdom? If he do act lightly, he has lost his root (of
gravity); if he proceed to active movement, he will lose his throne.
27. 1. The skilful traveller leaves no traces of his wheels or
footsteps; the skilful speaker says nothing that can be found fault
with or blamed; the skilful reckoner uses no tallies; the skilful
closer needs no bolts or bars, while to open what he has shut will be
impossible; the skilful binder uses no strings or knots, while to
unloose what he has bound will be impossible. In the same way the
sage is always skilful at saving men, and so he does not cast away any
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: are lymphatic, and we, as a general thing, are sanguine and
energetic."
"Ah! monsieur," said Clousier, "there you touch a great question,
which ought to be studied: How to find institutions properly adapted
to repress the temperament of a people! Assuredly Cromwell was a great
legislator. He alone made the England of to-day, by inventing the
'Navigation Act,' which has made the English enemies of all the world,
and infused into them a ferocious pride and self-conceit, which is
their mainstay. But, in spite of their Malta citadel, if France and
Russia will only comprehend the part the Mediterranean and the Black
Sea ought to be made to play in the future, the road to Asia through
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