| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: by his little band of assistants, the Daemon of Selfishness came to
him and said:
"These toys are wonderfully bright and pretty. Why do you not keep
them for yourself? It's a pity to give them to those noisy boys and
fretful girls, who break and destroy them so quickly."
"Nonsense!" cried the old graybeard, his bright eyes twinkling merrily
as he turned toward the tempting Daemon. "The boys and girls are
never so noisy and fretful after receiving my presents, and if I can
make them happy for one day in the year I am quite content."
So the Daemon went back to the others, who awaited him in their caves,
and said:
A Kidnapped Santa Claus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: surprise, or when a rapid retreat was imperative, that he
sacrificed everything for speed. [1] ]
9. If you march fifty LI in order to outmaneuver the enemy,
you will lose the leader of your first division, and only half
your force will reach the goal.
[Literally, "the leader of the first division will be
TORN AWAY."]
10. If you march thirty LI with the same object, two-thirds
of your army will arrive.
[In the T`UNG TIEN is added: "From this we may know the
difficulty of maneuvering."]
The Art of War |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: look at the spring flowers. (This is quite in the modern style,
strings of phrases as endless as the macaroni on the table a while
ago.) On that 'eyebrows idem' (no offence to the prefect of police)
Parny, that writer of light and playful verse, would have hung half-a-
dozen couplets, comparing them very agreeably to Cupid's bow, at the
same time bidding us to observe that the dart was beneath; the said
dart, however, was neither very potent nor very penetrating, for as
yet it was controlled by the namby-pamby sweetness of a Mlle. de la
Valliere as depicted on fire-screens, at the moment when she
solemnizes her betrothal in the sight of heaven, any solemnization
before the registrar being quite out to the question.
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