| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: very angry and ran at the old gentleman to turn him out; but he
also had hardly touched him when away he went after Hans and the
rolling-pin, and hit his head against the wall as he tumbled into
the corner. And so there they lay, all three.
Then the old gentleman spun himself round with velocity in
the opposite direction, continued to spin until his long cloak was
all wound neatly about him, clapped his cap on his head, very much
on one side (for it could not stand upright without going through
the ceiling), gave an additional twist to his corkscrew mustaches,
and replied with perfect coolness: "Gentlemen, I wish you a very
good morning. At twelve o'clock tonight I'll call again; after
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The War in the Air by H. G. Wells: defenders killed after a fierce, disorderly struggle.
The difficulty of the Germans in both these cases came from the
impossibility of landing any efficient force or, indeed, any
force at all from the air-fleet. The airships were quite unequal
to the transport of any adequate landing parties; their
complement of men was just sufficient to manoeuvre and fight them
in the air. From above they could inflict immense damage; they
could reduce any organised Government to a capitulation in the
briefest space, but they could not disarm, much less could they
occupy, the surrendered areas below. They had to trust to the
pressure upon the authorities below of a threat to renew the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: from thence on to San Miniato. When Castruccio heard of the enormous
army which the Florentines were sending against him, he was in no
degree alarmed, believing that the time had now arrived when Fortune
would deliver the empire of Tuscany into his hands, for he had no
reason to think that his enemy would make a better fight, or had
better prospects of success, than at Pisa or Serravalle. He assembled
twenty thousand foot soldiers and four thousand horsemen, and with
this army went to Fucecchio, whilst he sent Pagolo Guinigi to Pisa
with five thousand infantry. Fucecchio has a stronger position than
any other town in the Pisan district, owing to its situation between
the rivers Arno and Gusciana and its slight elevation above the
The Prince |
