| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: So I waited for him near an hour, and then ate my half of the
sandwiches and boiled eggs, smoked a solitary pipe, and fell into a
light sleep at the foot of the biggest birch tree, an old and trusty
friend of mine. It seemed like a very slight sound that roused me:
the snapping of a dry twig in the thicket, or a gentle splash in the
water, differing in some indefinable way from the steady murmur of
the stream; something it was, I knew not what, that made me aware of
some one coming down the brook. I raised myself quietly on one
elbow and looked up through the trees to the head of the pool. "Ned
will think that I have gone down long ago," I said to myself; "I
will just lie here and watch him fish through this pool, and see how
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: against traitors who may lie in close covert, secretly spying out
our weaknesses and overhearing our instructions."]
18. When the enemy is close at hand and remains quiet, he
is relying on the natural strength of his position.
[Here begin Sun Tzu's remarks on the reading of signs, much
of which is so good that it could almost be included in a modern
manual like Gen. Baden-Powell's "Aids to Scouting."]
19. When he keeps aloof and tries to provoke a battle, he
is anxious for the other side to advance.
[Probably because we are in a strong position from which he
wishes to dislodge us. "If he came close up to us, says Tu Mu,
The Art of War |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Faith of Men by Jack London: But John Fox feigned anger, crying: "What foolishness is this? Am
I old, that thou shouldst mate me with old women? Am I toothless?
lame of leg? blind of eye? Or am I poor that no bright-eyed maiden
may look with favour upon me? Behold! I am the Factor, both rich
and great, a power in the land, whose speech makes men tremble and
is obeyed!"
Snettishane was inwardly pleased, though his sphinx-like visage
never relaxed. He was drawing the Factor, and making him break
ground. Being a creature so elemental as to have room for but one
idea at a time, Snettishane could pursue that one idea a greater
distance than could John Fox. For John Fox, elemental as he was,
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