| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: can hardly show his wisdom better than by sending out advanced patrols
in front of the ordinary exploring parties to reconnoitre every inch
of ground minutely. So to be apprised of the enemy's position in
advance, and at as great a distance off as possible, cannot fail to be
useful, whether for purposes of attack or defence; just as it is
useful also to enforce a halt at the passage of a river or some other
defile, so that the men in rear may not knock their horses all to bits
in endeavouring to overtake their leader. These are precepts known, I
admit, to nearly all the world, but it is by no means every one who
will take pains to apply them carefully.[7]
[7] See "Econ." xx. 6. foll.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: Citizen, "it is worth while to do what you can."
Fortune and the Fabulist
A WRITER of Fables was passing through a lonely forest when he met
a Fortune. Greatly alarmed, he tried to climb a tree, but the
Fortune pulled him down and bestowed itself upon him with cruel
persistence.
"Why did you try to run away?" said the Fortune, when his struggles
had ceased and his screams were stilled. "Why do you glare at me
so inhospitably?"
"I don't know what you are," replied the Writer of Fables, deeply
disturbed.
Fantastic Fables |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: monster plant under his management was yielding the
greatest possible profit under the least possible outlay.
In Fanny Brandeis he had found a stimulating, energizing
fellow worker. That had been from the beginning. In the
first month or two of her work, when her keen brain was
darting here and there, into forgotten and neglected
corners, ferreting out dusty scraps of business waste and
holding them up to the light, disdainfully, Fenger had
watched her with a mingling of amusement and a sort of fond
pride, as one would a precocious child. As the months went
on the pride and amusement welded into something more than
Fanny Herself |
