| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: R. L. S.
Letter: TO R. A. M. STEVENSON
LA SOLITUDE, HYERES-LES-PALMIERS [OCTOBER 1883].
MY DEAR BOB, - Yes, I got both your letters at Lyons, but have been
since then decading in several steps Toothache; fever; Ferrier's
death; lung. Now it is decided I am to leave to-morrow, penniless,
for Nice to see Dr. Williams.
I was much struck by your last. I have written a breathless note
on Realism for Henley; a fifth part of the subject, hurriedly
touched, which will show you how my thoughts are driving. You are
now at last beginning to think upon the problems of executive,
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: went to church as he had done the day his idea was born. It was on
this occasion, as it happened, after a year had passed, that he
began to observe his altar to be haunted by a worshipper at least
as frequent as himself. Others of the faithful, and in the rest of
the church, came and went, appealing sometimes, when they
disappeared, to a vague or to a particular recognition; but this
unfailing presence was always to be observed when he arrived and
still in possession when he departed. He was surprised, the first
time, at the promptitude with which it assumed an identity for him
- the identity of the lady whom two years before, on his
anniversary, he had seen so intensely bowed, and of whose tragic
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: carry the intelligence to the enemy. The Ch`in general was
overjoyed, and attributed his adversary's tardiness to the fact
that the beleaguered city was in the Han State, and thus not
actually part of Chao territory. But the spies had no sooner
departed than Chao She began a forced march lasting for two days
and one night, and arrive on the scene of action with such
astonishing rapidity that he was able to occupy a commanding
position on the "North hill" before the enemy had got wind of his
movements. A crushing defeat followed for the Ch`in forces, who
were obliged to raise the siege of O-yu in all haste and retreat
across the border.]
The Art of War |
