| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: ostentatiously do thing calculated to deceive our own spies, who
must be led to believe that they have been unwittingly disclosed.
Then, when these spies are captured in the enemy's lines, they
will make an entirely false report, and the enemy will take
measures accordingly, only to find that we do something quite
different. The spies will thereupon be put to death." As an
example of doomed spies, Ho Shih mentions the prisoners released
by Pan Ch`ao in his campaign against Yarkand. (See p. 132.) He
also refers to T`ang Chien, who in 630 A.D. was sent by T`ai
Tsung to lull the Turkish Kahn Chieh-li into fancied security,
until Li Ching was able to deliver a crushing blow against him.
The Art of War |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Othello by William Shakespeare: Iago. Oh, 'tis foule in her
Oth. With mine Officer?
Iago. That's fouler
Othe. Get me some poyson, Iago, this night. Ile not
expostulate with her: least her body and beautie vnprouide
my mind againe: this night Iago
Iago. Do it not with poyson, strangle her in her bed,
Euen the bed she hath contaminated
Oth. Good, good:
The Iustice of it pleases: very good
Iago. And for Cassio, let me be his vndertaker:
Othello |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: Barbicane calculated the quantity of spirits of wine overflowed
into the little vial soldered to the lower part of the
instrument, and said:
"A hundred and forty degrees Centigrade [4] below zero!"
[4] 218 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
M. Pouillet was right and Fourier wrong. That was the undoubted
temperature of the starry space. Such is, perhaps, that of the
lunar continents, when the orb of night has lost by radiation
all the heat which fifteen days of sun have poured into her.
CHAPTER XV
HYPERBOLA OR PARABOLA
From the Earth to the Moon |
