| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: in a district over which he has played as a boy. He had walked
altogether about four and a half miles
Where Stour receives her strength,
From six cleere fountains fed, [2]
when he crossed a tributary of the Stour, and reached Leddenton--
a little town of three or four thousand inhabitants--
where he went on to the boys' school, and knocked at the door
of the master's residence.
[1] William Barnes. [2] Drayton.
A boy pupil-teacher opened it, and to Phillotson's inquiry
if Mr. Gillingham was at home replied that he was, going at
Jude the Obscure |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: a distance from the earth's surface is a source of working-power;
because the body can be moved by the attraction, and in falling to
the earth can perform work. When it rests upon the earth's surface
it is not a source of power or energy, because it can fall no
further. But though it has ceased to be a source of energy, the
attraction of gravity still acts as a force, which holds the earth
and weight together.
The same remarks apply to attracting atoms and molecules. As long
as distance separates them, they can move across it in obedience to
the attraction, and the motion thus produced may, by proper appliances,
be caused to perform mechanical work. When, for example, two atoms
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: against separate parts of a whole, which means that we shall be
many to the enemy's few.
15. And if we are able thus to attack an inferior force
with a superior one, our opponents will be in dire straits.
16. The spot where we intend to fight must not be made
known; for then the enemy will have to prepare against a possible
attack at several different points;
[Sheridan once explained the reason of General Grant's
victories by saying that "while his opponents were kept fully
employed wondering what he was going to do, HE was thinking most
of what he was going to do himself."]
The Art of War |
