| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: come upon the cat-bird at her morning bath, and hear her sing, in a
clump of pussy-willows, that low, tender, confidential song which
she keeps for the hours of domestic intimacy. The spotted
sandpiper will run along the stones before you, crying, "wet-feet,
wet-feet!" and bowing and teetering in the friendliest manner, as
if to show you the way to the best pools. In the thick branches of
the hemlocks that stretch across the stream, the tiny warblers,
dressed in a hundred colours, chirp and twitter confidingly above
your head; and the Maryland yellow-throat, flitting through the
bushes like a little gleam of sunlight, calls "witchery, witchery,
witchery!" That plaintive, forsaken, persistent note, never
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: after glory should be careless of public opinion."]
(5) over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry
and trouble.
[Here again, Sun Tzu does not mean that the general is to be
careless of the welfare of his troops. All he wishes to
emphasize is the danger of sacrificing any important military
advantage to the immediate comfort of his men. This is a
shortsighted policy, because in the long run the troops will
suffer more from the defeat, or, at best, the prolongation of the
war, which will be the consequence. A mistaken feeling of pity
will often induce a general to relieve a beleaguered city, or to
The Art of War |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: "reduced her almost to the point of death. She used tenderly to
complain of this to God. 'I cannot support it,' she used to say.
'Bear gently with my weakness, or I shall expire under the
violence of your love.'"[161]
[161] Bougaud: Hist. de la Bienheureuse Marguerite Marie, 1894,
p. 125.
Let me pass next to the Charity and Brotherly Love which are a
usual fruit of saintliness, and have always been reckoned
essential theological virtues, however limited may have been the
kinds of service which the particular theology enjoined.
Brotherly love would follow logically from the assurance of God's
|
