| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: The paper of one hoop was still left unbroken. The attendant
turned his eyes to glance at the oncoming girl; the hoop shifted
slightly in his clumsy hand as Polly leapt straight up from
Bingo's back, trusting to her first calculation. Her forehead
struck the edge of the hoop. She clutched wildly at the air.
Bingo galloped on, and she fell to the ground, striking her head
against the iron-bound stake at the edge of the ring.
Everything stopped. There was a gasp of horror; the musicians
dropped their instruments; Bingo halted and looked back uneasily;
she lay unconscious and seemingly lifeless.
A great cry went up in the tent. Panic- stricken, men, women and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: who showed himself wholly regardless of his life in the fierce
struggle for his rights. Twice was his horse shot under him; but
increasing danger seemed but to animate him to greater daring.
So bravely did his army fight likewise, that the Republicans at
first gave way before them. For upwards of four hours the
engagement raged with great fierceness. Cromwell subsequently
declared it was "as stiff a contest as he had ever seen," and
his experience was great. Success seemed now to crown the
Royalists, anon to favour the Roundheads. The great crisis of
the day at length arrived: the Cromwellians began to waver and
give way just as the Royalist cavalry had expended their
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: Of course, cries the reader, it was kept in its original covers,
with all the interesting associations of its early state untouched?
No such thing! Instead of making a suitable case, in which it
could be preserved just as it was, it was placed in the hands of a
well-known London binder, with the order, "Whole bind in velvet."
He did his best, and the volume now glows luxuriously in its
gilt edges and its inappropriate covering, and, alas! with
half-an-inch of its uncut margin taken off all round.
How do I know that? because the clever binder, seeing some MS.
remarks on one of the margins, turned the leaf down to avoid
cutting them off, and that stern witness will always testify,
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