| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: attention to the horses' feet, and see that they will stand being
ridden over rough ground. A horse, one knows, is practically useless
where he cannot be galloped without suffering.
[5] Lit. "in process of being raised."
[6] Or, "to press home a charge a l'outrance, or retire from the field
unscathed."
And now, supposing that your horses are all that they ought to be,
like pains must be applied to train the men themselves. The trooper,
in the first place, must be able to spring on horseback easily--a feat
to which many a man has owed his life ere now. And next, he must be
able to ride with freedom over every sort of ground, since any
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: Marquis struck his hand on his heart. "I did not choose that my
children should be able to think of me as I have thought of my father
and of my ancestors. I aim at leaving them an unblemished inheritance
and escutcheon. I did not choose that nobility should be a lie in my
person. And, after all, politically speaking, ought those emigres who
are now appealing against revolutionary confiscations, to keep the
property derived from antecedent confiscations by positive crimes?
"I found in M. Jeanrenaud and his mother the most perverse honesty; to
hear them you would suppose that they were robbing me. In spite of all
I could say, they will accept no more than the value of the lands at
the time when the King bestowed them on my family. The price was
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: played her cards better?--he'd been sent by Providence--and she'd snubbed
him. "If I had that time over again, I'd be safe by now." And instead of
the ordinary man who had spoken with her at the door her mind created a
brilliant, laughing image, who would treat her like a queen..."There's only
one thing I could not stand--that he should be coarse or vulgar. Well, he
wasn't--he was obviously a man of the world, and the way he apologised...I
have enough faith in my own power and beauty to know I could make a man
treat me just as I wanted to be treated."...It floated into her dreams--
that sweet scent of cigarette smoke. And then she remembered that she had
heard nobody go down the stone stairs. Was it possible that the strange
man was still there?...The thought was too absurd--Life didn't play tricks
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