| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: vessels. The sage, when employed, becomes the Head of all the
Officers (of government); and in his greatest regulations he employs
no violent measures.
29. 1. If any one should wish to get the kingdom for himself, and to
effect this by what he does, I see that he will not succeed. The
kingdom is a spirit-like thing, and cannot be got by active doing. He
who would so win it destroys it; he who would hold it in his grasp
loses it.
2. The course and nature of things is such that
What was in front is now behind;
What warmed anon we freezing find.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: freedom of the provinces, she hails him as a conqueror, and extends to him
a laurel crown. As the wreath approaches his head, Egmont moves like
one asleep, and reclines with his face towards her. She holds the wreath
suspended over his head,--martial music is heard in the distance, at the
first sound the vision disappears. The music grows louder and louder.
Egmont awakes. The prison is dimly illuminated by the dawn.--His first
impulse is to lift his hand to his head, he stands up, and gazes round, his
hand still upraised.)
The crown is vanished! Beautiful vision, the light of day has frighted thee!
Yes, their revealed themselves to my sight uniting in one radiant form the
two sweetest joys of my heart. Divine Liberty borrowed the mien of my
Egmont |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: where others are obscure, some will please by their
style and others by their method, some by their
embellishments and others by their simplicity, some by
closeness and others by diffusion.
The same indulgence is to be shown to the writers
of morality: right and wrong are immutable; and
those, therefore, who teach us to distinguish them, if
they all teach us right, must agree with one another.
The relations of social life, and the duties resulting
from them, must be the same at all times and in all
nations: some petty differences may be, indeed,
|
