| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: famous occasion when Hannibal was hemmed in among the mountains
on the road to Casilinum, and to all appearances entrapped by the
dictator Fabius. The stratagem which Hannibal devised to baffle
his foes was remarkably like that which T`ien Tan had also
employed with success exactly 62 years before. [See IX. ss. 24,
note.] When night came on, bundles of twigs were fastened to the
horns of some 2000 oxen and set on fire, the terrified animals
being then quickly driven along the mountain side towards the
passes which were beset by the enemy. The strange spectacle of
these rapidly moving lights so alarmed and discomfited the Romans
that they withdrew from their position, and Hannibal's army
The Art of War |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: humiliation; and then he will heal the wound with flatteries that no
woman can resist.
SHAKESPEAR. Flatteries! _[Kneeling]_ Oh, madam, I put my case at
your royal feet. I confess to much. I have a rude tongue: I am
unmannerly: I blaspheme against the holiness of anointed royalty; but
oh, my royal mistress, AM I a flatterer?
ELIZABETH. I absolve you as to that. You are far too plain a dealer
to please me. _[He rises gratefully]._
THE DARK LADY. Madam: he is flattering you even as he speaks.
ELIZABETH. _[a terrible flash in her eye]_ Ha! Is it so?
SHAKESPEAR. Madam: she is jealous; and, heaven help me! not without
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: consistently. His growing fortune seemed to mean little now that
his affluence was thoroughly established. For whom was he
working? he would ask himself. For the life of him, he could not
answer. Surely not for his Rag-weed of Sharon. Nellie? She was
well enough fixed and he didn't care a shot for her husband. Then
why? Sometimes he pursued this chain of thought further, "I'll
die and probably leave five times as much as I have now to her
and who knows what she'll do with it? I'll never enjoy any of it
myself. I'm not such a fool as to expect it. What difference can
a few thousand dollars more or less make to me from now on? Then
why do I scheme and slave? Pshaw! I've known the answer ever
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