| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: away from those who have not enough to add to his own superabundance.
3. Who can take his own superabundance and therewith serve all under
heaven? Only he who is in possession of the Tao!
4. Therefore the (ruling) sage acts without claiming the results as
his; he achieves his merit and does not rest (arrogantly) in it:--he
does not wish to display his superiority.
78. 1. There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water,
and yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing
that can take precedence of it;--for there is nothing (so effectual)
for which it can be changed.
2. Every one in the world knows that the soft overcomes the hard, and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: entire battalion of the Cardigan Regiment. No details are
known. Maxims have been absolutely useless against their
armour; the field guns have been disabled by them. Flying
hussars have been galloping into Chertsey. The Martians
appear to be moving slowly towards Chertsey or Windsor.
Great anxiety prevails in West Surrey, and earthworks are
being thrown up to check the advance Londonward." That
was how the Sunday SUN put it, and a clever and remarkably
prompt "handbook" article in the REFEREE compared the affair
to a menagerie suddenly let loose in a village.
No one in London knew positively of the nature of the
War of the Worlds |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: quickness? I should say the quality which accomplishes much in a little
time--whether in running, speaking, or in any other sort of action.
LACHES: You would be quite correct.
SOCRATES: And now, Laches, do you try and tell me in like manner, What is
that common quality which is called courage, and which includes all the
various uses of the term when applied both to pleasure and pain, and in all
the cases to which I was just now referring?
LACHES: I should say that courage is a sort of endurance of the soul, if I
am to speak of the universal nature which pervades them all.
SOCRATES: But that is what we must do if we are to answer the question.
And yet I cannot say that every kind of endurance is, in my opinion, to be
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