| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: Atreus still shouting, and with hands all bedrabbled in gore; but
when they had reached the Scaean gates and the oak tree, there
they halted and waited for the others to come up. Meanwhile the
Trojans kept on flying over the middle of the plain like a herd
of cows maddened with fright when a lion has attacked them in the
dead of night--he springs on one of them, seizes her neck in the
grip of his strong teeth and then laps up her blood and gorges
himself upon her entrails--even so did King Agamemnon son of
Atreus pursue the foe, ever slaughtering the hindmost as they
fled pell-mell before him. Many a man was flung headlong from his
chariot by the hand of the son of Atreus, for he wielded his
The Iliad |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: clefts or gullies, to work round on to practicable ground, and to
discover at what point the troopers may effect a passage, so that
whole ranks may not go blindly roaming.[6]
[5] {ton upereton} = "ground scouts," al. "orderlies." Ordonnances,
trabans (Courier). See Rustow and Kochly, p. 140. "Cyrop." II. i.
21; II. iv. 4; V. iii. 52; VII. v. 18, and VI. ii. 13; "Anab." I.
ix. 27; II. i. 9; where "adjutants," "orderlies" would seem to be
implied.
[6] Al. "to prevent whole divisions losing their way." Cf. "Anab."
VIII. iii. 18.
Again, if there is prospect of danger on the march, a prudent general
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: which must not be obeyed.
[This is a hard saying for the Chinese, with their reverence
for authority, and Wei Liao Tzu (quoted by Tu Mu) is moved to
exclaim: "Weapons are baleful instruments, strife is
antagonistic to virtue, a military commander is the negation of
civil order!" The unpalatable fact remains, however, that even
Imperial wishes must be subordinated to military necessity.]
4. The general who thoroughly understands the advantages
that accompany variation of tactics knows how to handle his
troops.
5. The general who does not understand these, may be well
The Art of War |
