| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: Could still go round and boast he had
With queries floored me daily.
He'll stick, I'll bet, in less than five
Brief minutes any man alive.
ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP
Who once has had a friend has found
The link 'twixt mortal and divine;
Though now he sleeps in hallowed ground,
He lives in memory's sacret shrine;
And there he freely moves about,
A spirit that has quit the clay,
A Heap O' Livin' |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: victory." Wu Tzu (chap. 4) puts "spirit" first among the "four
important influences" in war, and continues: "The value of a
whole army--a mighty host of a million men--is dependent on one
man alone: such is the influence of spirit!"]
a commander-in-chief may be robbed of his presence of mind.
[Chang Yu says: "Presence of mind is the general's most
important asset. It is the quality which enables him to
discipline disorder and to inspire courage into the panic-
stricken." The great general Li Ching (A.D. 571-649) has a
saying: "Attacking does not merely consist in assaulting walled
cities or striking at an army in battle array; it must include
The Art of War |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: handed, or to devote myself to making as many others as possible fit
to engage in that pursuit?
VII
Let us here turn and consider whether by deterring his associates from
quackery and false seeming he did not directly stimulate them to the
pursuit of virtue.[1] He used often to say there was no better road to
renown than the one by which a man became good at that wherein he
desired to be reputed good.[2] The truth of the concept he enforced as
follows: "Let us reflect on what a man would be driven to do who
wanted to be thought a good flute player, without really being so. He
would be forced to imitate the good flute player in the externals of
The Memorabilia |
