| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: movements of the enemy and watch for any error on his part.[18]
[18] As, e.g. Epaminondas at Tegea. See "Hell." VII. v. 9.
Whatever may be snatched by ruse, thief fashion,[19] your business is
to send a competent patrol to seize; or again where capture by coup de
main[20] is practicable, you will despatch a requisite body of troops
to effect a coup de main. Or take the case: the enemy is on the march
in some direction, and a portion of his force becomes detached from
his main body or through excess of confidence is caught straggling; do
not let the opportunity escape, but make it a rule always to pursue a
weaker with a stronger force.[21] These, indeed, are rules of
procedure, which it only requires a simple effort of the mind to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: unfortunate spouse or making way with himself suggests how dead
already is that individuality which we deem to be of the very essence
of the thing.
Marriage is thus a species of investment contracted by the existing
family for the sake of the prospective one, the actual participants
being only lay figures in the affair. Sometimes the father decides
the matter himself; sometimes he or the relative who stands in loco
parentis calls for a plebiscit on the subject; for such an extension
of the suffrage has gradually crept even into patriarchal
institutions. The family then assemble, sit in solemn conclave on
the question, and decide it by vote. Of course the interested
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: of kind. Reason and feeling dictate it. Your very instinct
demands it. That you cannot deny. You cannot escape the
generations behind you. Yours is an ancestry which has survived
for a thousand centuries, and for a hundred thousand centuries,
and your line must not stop here. It cannot. Your ancestry will
not permit it. Instinct is stronger than the will. The race is
mightier than you. Come, Dave, let us go. We are young yet, and
life is good. Come."
Winapie, passing out of the cabin to feed the dogs, caught his
attention and caused him to shake his head and weakly to
reiterate. But the woman's hand slipped about his neck, and her
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