| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: "Pistols, yes," replied the grenadier. "But as for that horse-cloth,
no! here's a poor fellow afoot, with nothing in his stomach for two
days, and shivering in his rags. It is our general."
Philippe kept silence as he looked at the man, whose boots were worn
out, his trousers torn in a dozen places, while nothing but a ragged
fatigue-cap covered with ice was on his head. He hastened, however, to
take his pistols. Five men dragged the mare to the fire, and cut her
up with the dexterity of a Parisian butcher. The pieces were instantly
seized and flung upon the embers.
The major went up to the young woman, who had uttered a cry on
recognizing him. He found her motionless, seated on a cushion beside
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: coupled with the wish that the critics of the administration
might feel properly rebuked by this strong expression of the
popular will. Mr. Lincoln looked at him in kindly surprise. "You
have more of that feeling of personal resentment than I," he
said. "Perhaps I have too little of it, but I never thought it
paid. A man has not time to spend half his life in quarrels. If
any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against
him." This state of mind might well have been called by a higher
name than "lack of personal resentment."
Lincoln and Johnson received a popular majority of 411,281, and
212 out of 233 electoral votes--only those of New Jersey,
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