| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: information that we choose to give them. Then, having cunningly
disclosed our intentions, "we must manage, though starting after
the enemy, to arrive before him (VII. ss. 4). We must start
after him in order to ensure his marching thither; we must arrive
before him in order to capture the place without trouble. Taken
thus, the present passage lends some support to Mei Yao-ch`en's
interpretation of ss. 47.]
67. Walk in the path defined by rule,
[Chia Lin says: "Victory is the only thing that matters,
and this cannot be achieved by adhering to conventional canons."
It is unfortunate that this variant rests on very slight
The Art of War |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: brass telescope, a small bottle of oil with a feather stuck
in the neck at the other--and the flattering attention
given to him by the man in power. It was an under-
taking full of risk he had come to expound, but a twenty
minutes' talk in the Government Bungalow on the hill
had made it go smoothly from the start. And as he
was retiring Mr. Denham, already seated before the
papers, called out after him, "Next month the Dido
starts for a cruise that way, and I shall request her
captain officially to give you a look in and see how
you get on." The Dido was one of the smart frigates on
End of the Tether |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: And, maddened with despair, so that he laughed loud and long, did
Goodman Brown grasp his staff and set forth again, at such a rate
that he seemed to fly along the forest path rather than to walk
or run. The road grew wilder and drearier and more faintly
traced, and vanished at length, leaving him in the heart of the
dark wilderness, still rushing onward with the instinct that
guides mortal man to evil. The whole forest was peopled with
frightful sounds--the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild
beasts, and the yell of Indians; while sometimes the wind tolled
like a distant church bell, and sometimes gave a broad roar
around the traveller, as if all Nature were laughing him to
Mosses From An Old Manse |
