| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: missed you," she went on. "My father told me. How charming of you
to have come so soon!"
"Does that surprise you?" Paul Overt asked.
"The first day? No, from you - nothing that's nice." She was
interrupted by a lady who bade her good-night, and he seemed to
read that it cost her nothing to speak to him in that tone; it was
her old liberal lavish way, with a certain added amplitude that
time had brought; and if this manner began to operate on the spot,
at such a juncture in her history, perhaps in the other days too it
had meant just as little or as much - a mere mechanical charity,
with the difference now that she was satisfied, ready to give but
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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: impossible to account for the present state of Sun Tzu's text, a
few suggestive facts maybe brought into prominence: (1) Chap.
VIII, according to the title, should deal with nine variations,
whereas only five appear. (2) It is an abnormally short chapter.
(3) Chap. XI is entitled The Nine Grounds. Several of these are
defined twice over, besides which there are two distinct lists of
the corresponding variations. (4) The length of the chapter is
disproportionate, being double that of any other except IX. I do
not propose to draw any inferences from these facts, beyond the
general conclusion that Sun Tzu's work cannot have come down to
us in the shape in which it left his hands: chap. VIII is
The Art of War |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: The poet, he replied, could never have made such a mistake as to say that
virtue, which in the opinion of all men is the hardest of all things, can
be easily retained.
Well, I said, and how fortunate are we in having Prodicus among us, at the
right moment; for he has a wisdom, Protagoras, which, as I imagine, is more
than human and of very ancient date, and may be as old as Simonides or even
older. Learned as you are in many things, you appear to know nothing of
this; but I know, for I am a disciple of his. And now, if I am not
mistaken, you do not understand the word 'hard' (chalepon) in the sense
which Simonides intended; and I must correct you, as Prodicus corrects me
when I use the word 'awful' (deinon) as a term of praise. If I say that
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