| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: recollect it--of the Maribyrnong Plate. The walls were colonial
ramparts--logs of jarrak spiked into masonry--with wings as strong
as Church buttresses. Once in his stride, a horse had to jump or
fall. He couldn't run out. In the Maribyrnong Plate, twelve horses
were jammed at the second wall. Red Hat, leading, fell this side,
and threw out The Glen, and the ruck came up behind and the space
between wing and wing was one struggling, screaming, kicking
shambles. Four jockeys were taken out dead; three were very badly
hurt, and Brunt was among the three. He told the story of the
Maribyrnong Plate sometimes; and when he described how Whalley on
Red Hat, said, as the mare fell under him:--"God ha' mercy, I'm done
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: by all that was once sacred to him, and by my cross and my
church, that he would be a good man, that he would be worthy to
have you secretly his wife for the little time life left him to
worship at your shrine. You needed never to know. So I held my
tongue, half pitying him, half fearing him, and praying for some
God-sent light.
"Senora, it was a fool's paradise that Stewart lived in. I saw
him, often. When he took me up into the mountains to have me
marry that wayward Bonita and her lover I came to have respect
for a man whose ideas about nature and life and God were at a
variance with mine. But the man is a worshiper of God in all
The Light of Western Stars |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: there you will please to excuse me, sister. You know
my sentiments on that subject. I have often lamented
the advantage which the French have over us in that
particular. In Paris, the fashions have their dawnings,
their routine, and declensions, and depend as much
upon the caprice of the day as in other countries; but
there every lady assumes a right to deviate from the
general ton as far as will be of advantage to her own
appearance. In America, the cry is, what is the
fashion? and we follow it indiscriminately, because
it is so.
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