| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: satisfied to be there too, at the top of the tree, that our
dissatisfaction gave us to one another the merit of originality,
almost proved in one another a superior mind. It was not that
either of us would have preferred to grill out our days in the
plains; we always had a saving clause for the climate, the altitude,
the scenery; it was Simla intrinsic, Simla as its other conditions
made it, with which we found such liberal fault. Again I should
have to explain Simla, at the length of an essay at least, to
justify our condemnation. This difficulty confronts me everywhere.
I must ask you instead to imagine a small colony of superior--very
superior--officials, of British origin and traditions, set on the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 1492 by Mary Johntson: emulous to be the lookout, every man kept eyes on the west.
Now sprang clear and real to them the royal promise of
ten thousand maravedies pension to him who first sighted
Cipango, Cathay or India. The Admiral added a prize of a
green velvet doublet.
We had come nigh eight hundred leagues.
In the cabin, upon the table he spread Toscanelli's map,
and beside it a great one like it, of his own making, signed
in the corner _Columbus de Terra Rubra_. The depiction was
of a circle, and in the right or eastern side showed the coasts
of Ireland and England, France, Spain and Portugal, and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: the sword of State in the air, with the Earl of Zetland by his side.
The Queen's train of royal purple, or rather deep crimson, was borne
by many train-bearers. The whole scene seemed to me like a dream or
a vision. After a few minutes the Lord Chancellor came forward and
presented the speech to the Queen. She read it sitting and most
exquisitely. Her voice is flute-like and her whole emphasis decided
and intelligent. Very soon after the speech is finished she leaves
the House, and we all follow, as soon as we can get our carriages.
Lord Lansdowne told me before she came in that the speech would be
longer than usual, "but not so long as your President's speeches."
It has been a day of high pleasure and more like a romance than a
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