| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: past month, too, he has been making a little money, and he gives me
three francs every evening that I put into a money-box. Only he will
never let me out except to come here--and he calls me his little
kitten! Mamma never called me anything but bad names--and thief, and
vermin!"
"Well, then, my child, why should not Daddy Vyder be your husband?"
"But he is, madame," said the girl, looking at Adeline with calm
pride, without a blush, her brow smooth, her eyes steady. "He told me
that I was his little wife; but it is a horrid bore to be a man's wife
--if it were not for the burnt almonds!"
"Good Heaven!" said the Baroness to herself, "what monster can have
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: slighter character of a rhetorical exercise, or in which a motive or some
affinity to spurious writings can be detected, or which seem to have
originated in a name or statement really occurring in some classical
author, are also of doubtful credit; while there is no instance of any
ancient writing proved to be a forgery, which combines excellence with
length. A really great and original writer would have no object in
fathering his works on Plato; and to the forger or imitator, the 'literary
hack' of Alexandria and Athens, the Gods did not grant originality or
genius. Further, in attempting to balance the evidence for and against a
Platonic dialogue, we must not forget that the form of the Platonic writing
was common to several of his contemporaries. Aeschines, Euclid, Phaedo,
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: The gun was, of course, against him, and the
judge had given him the full sentence,--ten
years. He had now been in the State Peni-
tentiary for a month.
Frank was the only one, Alexandra told her-
self, for whom anything could be done. He had
been less in the wrong than any of them, and he
was paying the heaviest penalty. She often felt
that she herself had been more to blame than
poor Frank. From the time the Shabatas had
O Pioneers! |
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 Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: well, I said she, 'come out of this dreadfully cold place, and
let us sit down on deck.' The barrister dolefully followed her.
'Now,' said she, making herself comfortable against the end of
the house, 'go on. I will hear you out.' And then, seeing him
stand before her with so much obvious disrelish to the task, she
was suddenly overcome with laughter. Julia's laugh was a thing to
ravish lovers; she rolled her mirthful descant with the freedom
and the melody of a blackbird's song upon the river, and repeated
by the echoes of the farther bank. It seemed a thing in its own
place and a sound native to the open air. There was only one
creature who heard it without joy, and that was her unfortunate
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