| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: "She's a nuisance; she ought to be stopped."
M. Nioche stealthily put out his hand and laid it very gently
upon Newman's arm. "Stopped, yes," he whispered. "That's it.
Stopped short. She is running away--she must be stopped."
Then he paused a moment and looked round him. "I mean to stop her,"
he went on. "I am only waiting for my chance."
"I see," said Newman, laughing briefly again.
"She is running away and you are running after her.
You have run a long distance!"
But M. Nioche stared insistently: "I shall stop her!"
he softly repeated.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: [Tu Mu defines the ground as ground "to be contended for."
Ts`ao Kung says: "ground on which the few and the weak can
defeat the many and the strong," such as "the neck of a pass,"
instanced by Li Ch`uan. Thus, Thermopylae was of this
classification because the possession of it, even for a few days
only, meant holding the entire invading army in check and thus
gaining invaluable time. Cf. Wu Tzu, ch. V. ad init.: "For
those who have to fight in the ratio of one to ten, there is
nothing better than a narrow pass." When Lu Kuang was returning
from his triumphant expedition to Turkestan in 385 A.D., and had
got as far as I-ho, laden with spoils, Liang Hsi, administrator
The Art of War |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: stitch, and crosses in folded paper, so elaborately cockled as to show
the senseless labor they had cost.
The window-curtains were black with smoke, and the hangings absolutely
colorless. Between the fireplace and the large square table at which
the magistrate worked, the cook had set two cups of coffee on a small
table, and two armchairs, in mahogany and horsehair, awaited the uncle
and nephew. As daylight, darkened by the windows, could not penetrate
to this corner, the cook had left two dips burning, whose unsnuffed
wicks showed a sort of mushroom growth, giving the red light which
promises length of life to the candle from slowness of combustion--a
discovery due to some miser.
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