| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: of raw recruits or amateurs.[1]
[1] Cf. "Cyrop." I. v. 11; "Mem." III. vii. 7.
And this end may be secured primarily on this wise: those who are to
form your guerilla bands[2] must be so hardened and inured to the
saddle that they are capable of undergoing all the toils of a
campaign.[3] That a squadron (and I speak of horse and man alike)
should enter these lists in careless, disorderly fashion suggests the
idea of a troop of women stepping into the arena to cope with male
antagonists.
[2] Or, add, "for buccaneers and free-lances you must be."
[3] Lit. "every toil a soldier can encounter."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx: religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine
sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It
has resolved personal worth into exchange value. And in place of
the numberless and feasible chartered freedoms, has set up that
single, unconscionable freedom -- Free Trade. In one word, for
exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, naked,
shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.
The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation
hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has
converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the
man of science, into its paid wage labourers.
The Communist Manifesto |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: Expect each hour to see him safe again,
Loaded with spoils of foes in battle slain.
Snatch we the lucky minute while we may;
Nor can we be mistaken in the way;
For, hunting in the vale, we both have seen
The rising turrets, and the stream between,
And know the winding course, with ev'ry ford."
He ceas'd; and old Alethes took the word:
"Our country gods, in whom our trust we place,
Will yet from ruin save the Trojan race,
While we behold such dauntless worth appear
Aeneid |
