| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: honourable place, but in time of war the right hand. Those sharp
weapons are instruments of evil omen, and not the instruments of the
superior man;--he uses them only on the compulsion of necessity. Calm
and repose are what he prizes; victory (by force of arms) is to him
undesirable. To consider this desirable would be to delight in the
slaughter of men; and he who delights in the slaughter of men cannot
get his will in the kingdom.
3. On occasions of festivity to be on the left hand is the prized
position; on occasions of mourning, the right hand. The second in
command of the army has his place on the left; the general commanding
in chief has his on the right;--his place, that is, is assigned to him
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: contempt. They were a strange contrast in their different
loveliness as they stood face to face in the torture den, and it
was strange also to see the spirit of the lady of royal blood,
threatened as she was with a shameful death, or still more shameful
life, triumph over the Indian girl whom to-day fortune had set as
far above her as the stars.
'Say, royal lady,' asked Marina in her gentle voice, 'for what
cause did you, if tales are true, lie by the side of yonder white
man upon the stone of sacrifice?'
'Because I love him, Marina.'
'And for this same cause have I, Marina, laid my honour upon a
Montezuma's Daughter |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: concern I had been in about it, and how that was the thing that
drove me to the necessity of discovering it to her as I had done.
From all which I told her, that I had, on the most serious
reflections I was able to make in the case, come to this resolution,
which I hoped she would like, as a medium between both, viz.
that she should use her endeavours with her son to give me
leave to go to England, as I had desired, and to furnish me with
a sufficient sum of money, either in goods along with me, or
in bills for my support there, all along suggesting that he might
one time or other think it proper to come over to me.
That when I was gone, she should then, in cold blood, and
Moll Flanders |
