| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: Agaus have in great veneration; their priest calls them together at
this place once a year, and having sacrificed a cow, throws the head
into one of the springs of the Nile; after which ceremony, every one
sacrifices a cow or more, according to their different degrees of
wealth or devotion. The bones of these cows have already formed two
mountains of considerable height, which afford a sufficient proof
that these nations have always paid their adorations to this famous
river. They eat these sacrifices with great devotion, as flesh
consecrated to their deity. Then the priest anoints himself with
the grease and tallow of the cows, and sits down on a heap of straw,
on the top and in the middle of a pile which is prepared; they set
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: all virtue.
[1] See Aeschin. "c. Ctes." p. 52, 25; Plat. "Phileb." 56 B.
[2] See Plut. "Apophth. Lac." p. 104.
Yet let it not be supposed, because he whom we praise has finished
life, that our discourse must therefore be regarded as a funeral
hymn.[3] Far rather let it be named a hymn of praise, since in the
first place it is only the repetition, now that he is dead, of a tale
familiar to his ears when living. And in the next place, what is more
remote from dirge and lamentation than a life of glory crowned by
seasonable death? What more deserving of song and eulogy than
resplendent victories and deeds of highest note? Surely if one man
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: it up to any one but the duke in person; therefore they exhorted him
to come there. This appeared a good opportunity to the duke, as, being
invited by them, and not going of his own will, he would awaken no
suspicions. And the more to reassure them, he allowed all the French
men-at-arms who were with him in Lombardy to depart, except the
hundred lancers under Mons. di Candales, his brother-in-law. He left
Cesena about the middle of December, and went to Fano, and with the
utmost cunning and cleverness he persuaded the Vitelli and Orsini to
wait for him at Sinigalia, pointing out to them that any lack of
compliance would cast a doubt upon the sincerity and permanency of the
reconciliation, and that he was a man who wished to make use of the
The Prince |
