| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: their squeezing, one rainy muggy May night, into a second-class
railway-carriage - you could never tell by which class they would
travel - where Pemberton helped them to stow away a wonderful
collection of bundles and bags. The explanation of this manoeuvre
was that they had determined to spend the summer "in some bracing
place"; but in Paris they dropped into a small furnished apartment
- a fourth floor in a third-rate avenue, where there was a smell on
the staircase and the portier was hateful - and passed the next
four months in blank indigence.
The better part of this baffled sojourn was for the preceptor and
his pupil, who, visiting the Invalides and Notre Dame, the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: 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
description of country may become the seat of war. When, presently,
your men have got firm seats, your aim should be to make as many
members of the corps as possible not only skilled to hurl the javelin
from horseback with precision, but to perform all other feats expected
of the expert horseman. Next comes the need to arm both horse and man
in such a manner as to minimise the risk of wounds, and yet to
increase the force of every blow delivered.[7] This attended to, you
must contrive to make your men amenable to discipline, without which
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: "I hope," said the king, laughing, "that my silversmith shall be
robbed to-night, so that my curiosity may be satisfied. Therefore,
messieurs, no one is to leave his chamber to-morrow morning without my
order, under pain of grievous punishment."
Thereupon, all went to bed. The next morning, Louis XI. was the first
to leave his apartment, and he went at once to the door of the strong-
room. He was not a little astonished to see, as he went along, the
marks of a large foot along the stairways and corridors of the house.
Carefully avoiding those precious footprints, he followed them to the
door of the treasure-room, which he found locked without a sign of
fracture or defacement. Then he studied the direction of the steps;
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