| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: horns of some 2000 oxen and set on fire, the terrified animals
being then quickly driven along the mountain side towards the
passes which were beset by the enemy. The strange spectacle of
these rapidly moving lights so alarmed and discomfited the Romans
that they withdrew from their position, and Hannibal's army
passed safely through the defile. [See Polybius, III. 93, 94;
Livy, XXII. 16 17.]
On desperate ground, fight.
[For, as Chia Lin remarks: "if you fight with all your
might, there is a chance of life; where as death is certain if
you cling to your corner."]
The Art of War |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs:
"Hold!" cried Thurid, and springing forward before I could guess
his intention, he had grasped my beard and ripped the whole false
fabric from my face and head, revealing my smooth, tanned skin
beneath and my close-cropped black hair.
Instantly pandemonium reigned in the audience chamber of Salensus Oll.
Warriors pressed forward with drawn blades, thinking that I might be
contemplating the assassination of the Jeddak of Jeddaks; while others,
out of curiosity to see one whose name was familiar from pole to pole,
crowded behind their fellows.
The Warlord of Mars |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: sense, in tact, in capacity, and they deserve their fate. Are they not
queens in France? They can play with you as they like, when they like,
and as much as they like." Here she danced her vinaigrette with an
airy movement of feminine impertinence and mocking gayety. "I have
often heard miserable little specimens of my sex regretting that they
were women, wishing they were men; I have always regarded them with
pity. If I had to choose, I should still elect to be a woman. A fine
pleasure, indeed, to owe one's triumph to force, and to all those
powers which you give yourselves by the laws you make! But to see you
at our feet, saying and doing foolish things,--ah! it is an
intoxicating pleasure to feel within our souls that weakness triumphs!
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