| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: When it was finished my melancholy returned to me with added
force. Everything in the house took a tongue and cried to me of
past days. Its walls echoed a voice that I could never hear
again; in the very looking-glasses I saw the reflection of a lost
presence. Although I had moved myself for the purposes of sleep
to a little room at the further end of the building, footsteps
seemed to creep about my bed at night and I heard the rustle of a
remembered dress without the door. The place grew hateful to me.
I felt that I must get away from it or I should go mad.
One afternoon Bastin arrived carrying a book and in a state of
high indignation. This work, written, as he said, by some ribald
When the World Shook |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: place of meeting, the enemy will be able to annihilate the army
in detail. Chang Yu's note may be worth quoting here: "If we do
not know the place where our opponents mean to concentrate or the
day on which they will join battle, our unity will be forfeited
through our preparations for defense, and the positions we hold
will be insecure. Suddenly happening upon a powerful foe, we
shall be brought to battle in a flurried condition, and no mutual
support will be possible between wings, vanguard or rear,
especially if there is any great distance between the foremost
and hindmost divisions of the army."]
21. Though according to my estimate the soldiers of Yueh
The Art of War |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: posed that all the battle was directly under his
nose.
As he gazed around him the youth felt a flash
of astonishment at the blue, pure sky and the
sun gleamings on the trees and fields. It was
surprising that Nature had gone tranquilly on
with her golden process in the midst of so much
devilment.
CHAPTER VI.
THE youth awakened slowly. He came grad-
ually back to a position from which he could re-
The Red Badge of Courage |
