| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: living or of obtaining peace?[11]
[11] Cf. "Econ." v. 7.
Here, too, is a maxim to engrave upon the memory: in charging a
superior force, never to leave a difficult tract of ground in the rear
of your attack, since there is all the difference in the world between
a stumble in flight and a stumble in pursuit.
There is another precaution which I feel called upon to note. Some
generals,[12] in attacking a force which they imagine to be inferior
to their own, will advance with a ridiculously insufficient force,[13]
so that it is the merest accident if they do not experience the injury
they were minded to inflict. Conversely, in attacking any enemy whose
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: entered without knocking, much to the surprise of
the whole house. The "lady" then rang the bell,
and ordered dinner for two. "Dinner for two,
mum!" exclaimed the waiter, as he backed out of
the door. "Yes, for two," said my wife. In a
little while the stout, red-nosed butler, whom we
first met, knocked at the door. I called out, "Come
in." On entering, he rolled his whisky eyes at
me, and then at my wife, and said, in a very solemn
tone, "Did you order dinner for two, mum?"
"Yes, for two," my wife again replied. This
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: children, still stumbling in the impotence of youth, ran to
and fro, shouting and playing, round the pedestal; an old,
sick pensioner sat upon the nearest bench, a medal on his
breast, a stick with which he walked (for he was disabled by
wounds) reclining on his knee. Guilty England would thus be
stabbed in the most delicate quarters; the moment had,
indeed, been well selected; and M'Guire, with a radiant
provision of the event, drew merrily nearer. Suddenly his
eye alighted on the burly form of a policeman, standing hard
by the effigy in an attitude of watch. My bold companion
paused; he looked about him closely; here and there, at
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