| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: If faith decays, there will be disruption; if rewards are
deficient, commands will not be respected."]
17. Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your
troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless
the position is critical.
[Sun Tzu may at times appear to be over-cautious, but he
never goes so far in that direction as the remarkable passage in
the TAO TE CHING, ch. 69. "I dare not take the initiative, but
prefer to act on the defensive; I dare not advance an inch, but
prefer to retreat a foot."]
18. No ruler should put troops into the field merely to
The Art of War |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: If the person at whose expense the sign is made is present, the hand
is moved towards him, and the head sometimes averted from him."
This sudden extension and opening of the hand perhaps indicates
the dropping or throwing away a valueless object.
The term `disgust,' in its simplest sense, means something offensive
to the taste. It is curious how readily this feeling is excited
by anything unusual in the appearance, odour, or nature of our food.
In Tierra del Fuego a native touched with his finger some cold
preserved meat which I was eating at our bivouac, and plainly
showed utter disgust at its softness; whilst I felt utter disgust
at my food being touched by a naked savage, though his hands did
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: "I don't give that to everybody," said Mrs. Todd kindly; and
I felt for a moment as if it were part of a spell and incantation,
and as if my enchantress would now begin to look like the cobweb
shapes of the arctic town. Nothing happened but a quiet evening
and some delightful plans that we made about going to Green Island,
and on the morrow there was the clear sunshine and blue sky of
another day.
VIII
Green Island
ONE MORNING, very early, I heard Mrs. Todd in the garden outside my
window. By the unusual loudness of her remarks to a passer-by, and
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