| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: immediate results, and the terms of what I said to them,
desirable to be known. It will do a little justice to me,
who have not had too much justice done me. At the same time,
to send this report to the papers is truly an act of self-
advertisement, and I dislike the thought. Query, in a man
who has been so much calumniated, is that not justifiable? I
do not know; be my judge. Mankind is too complicated for me;
even myself. Do I wish to advertise? I think I do, God help
me! I have had hard times here, as every man must have who
mixes up with public business; and I bemoan myself, knowing
that all I have done has been in the interest of peace and
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: CHIH, written about the middle of the twelfth century, but he
appears simply as Ho Shih in the YU HAI, and Ma Tuan-lin quotes
Ch`ao Kung-wu as saying that his personal name is unknown. There
seems to be no reason to doubt Cheng Ch`iao's statement,
otherwise I should have been inclined to hazard a guess and
identify him with one Ho Ch`u-fei, the author of a short treatise
on war, who lived in the latter part of the 11th century. Ho
Shih's commentary, in the words of the T`IEN-I-KO catalogue,
"contains helpful additions" here and there, but is chiefly
remarkable for the copious extracts taken, in adapted form, from
the dynastic histories and other sources.
The Art of War |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: Both favour, savour hue, and qualities,
Whereat the impartial gazer late did wonder, 748
Are on the sudden wasted, thaw'd and done,
As mountain-snow melts with the mid-day sun.
'Therefore, despite of fruitless chastity,
Love-lacking vestals and self-loving nuns, 752
That on the earth would breed a scarcity
And barren dearth of daughters and of sons,
Be prodigal: the lamp that burns by night
Dries up his oil to lend the world his light. 756
'What is thy body but a swallowing grave,
|
