| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: cheating can as easily be carried on as at cards."
"Her soul is in this case."
"Her soul is not too large for it. Will you ride this afternoon?"
I promised, of course. From that time till he left Newport we saw
each other every day, and though I found little opportunity to
express my own peculiar feelings, he comprehended many of my
wishes, and all my tastes. I grew fond of him hourly. Had I not
reason? Never was friend so considerate, never was lover more
devoted.
When he had been gone a few days, Aunt Eliza declared that she
was ready to depart from Newport. The rose-colored days were ended!
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a
living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope--fervently
do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by
the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said
three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on
Second Inaugural Address |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: "Of course he was; and so was Homer, and heaps more. But
Shakespeare and the rest have to walk behind a common tailor from
Tennessee, by the name of Billings; and behind a horse-doctor named
Sakka, from Afghanistan. Jeremiah, and Billings and Buddha walk
together, side by side, right behind a crowd from planets not in
our astronomy; next come a dozen or two from Jupiter and other
worlds; next come Daniel, and Sakka and Confucius; next a lot from
systems outside of ours; next come Ezekiel, and Mahomet, Zoroaster,
and a knife-grinder from ancient Egypt; then there is a long
string, and after them, away down toward the bottom, come
Shakespeare and Homer, and a shoemaker named Marais, from the back
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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 Youth by Joseph Conrad: along the jetty like a ripple on the water, like a breath
of wind on a field--and all was still again. I see it now
--the wide sweep of the bay, the glittering sands, the
wealth of green infinite and varied, the sea blue like the
sea of a dream, the crowd of attentive faces, the blaze of
vivid color--the water reflecting it all, the curve of the
shore, the jetty, the high-sterned outlandish craft float-
ing still, and the three boats with tired men from the
West sleeping unconscious of the land and the people
and of the violence of sunshine. They slept thrown
across the thwarts, curled on bottom-boards, in the care-
Youth |
