To horse, my dear, and out into the night!

Stirrup and saddle and away, away!

Into the darkness, into the affright,

Into the unknown on our trackless way!

 

Past bridge and town missiled with flying feet,

Into the wilderness our riding thrills;

The gallop echoes through the startled street,

And shrieks like laughter in the demoned hillls;

 

Things come to meet us with fantastic frown,

And hurry past with maniac despair;

Death from the stars looks ominously down—

Ho, ho, the dauntless riding that we dare!

 

East, to the dawn, or west or south or north!

Loose rein upon the neck of Fate—and forth!

 

 Richard Hovey

 

 

 

 

Man should dare all things that he knows are right,

And fear to do no act save what is wrong;

But guided safely by his inward light,

And with a permanent belief and strong,

In Him who is our Father and our Friend,

He should walk steadfastly unto the end.

 

 Phoebe Cary

O give my youth, my faith, my sword,

Choice of the heart’s desire:

A short life in the saddle, Lord!

Not long life by the fire.

 

 Louise Imogen Guiney

  

 

 

 

Put forth thy hand in God’s name; know that “impossible,” where Truth and Mercy, and the everlasting Voices of Nature order, has no place in the brave man’s dictionary. That when all men have said “Impossible,” and tumbled noisily elsewhither, and thou alone art left, then first thy time and possibility have come. It is for thee now; do thou that, and ask no man’s counsel but thy own only, and God’s. Brother, thou hast possibility in thee for much; the possibility of writing on the eternal skies the record of a heroic life.

 

 Carlyle

  

 

 

 

Courage endures vexation and delay;

Biding its time while frantic cowardice

Leaps to unlooked-for ruin. Timid souls

Are always in a hurry.

 

 John Davidson