| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry: Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we
find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir,
deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert
the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated;
we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have
implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and
Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced
additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded;
and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne!
In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and
reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free--
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Roads of Destiny by O. Henry: only one government in the world that can get you out of this
difficulty; and that's the Confederate States of America, the grandest
nation that ever existed.'
"Just as you said to me I says to Doc; 'Why, the Confederacy ain't a
nation. It's been absolved forty years ago.'
"'That's a campaign lie,' says Doc. 'She's running along as solid as
the Roman Empire. She's the only hope you've got. Now, you, being a
Yank, have got to go through with some preliminary obsequies before
you can get official aid. You've got to take the oath of allegiance to
the Confederate Government. Then I'll guarantee she does all she can
for you. What do you say, Yank?--it's your last chance.'
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: "That 's for you, mamma," said his model, disengaging her arm
from her mother's hand and turning away.
The mamma stood looking at the sketch with a smile which seemed to express
a tender desire to reconcile all accidents.
"It 's extremely beautiful," she murmured, "and if you insist
on my taking it--"
"I shall regard it as a great honor."
"Very well, then; with many thanks, I will keep it." She looked
at the young man a moment, while her daughter walked away.
Longueville thought her a delightful little person; she struck
him as a sort of transfigured Quakeress--a mystic with a
|
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 Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: little groom was as drunk as the twenty-four cantons; they filled him
with champagne at Gondreville and that little scamp, only nine years
old, answered my man Julien, who asked him about his master's wig,
with all the assumption of an old valet: 'My master! wear a wig!--if
he did I'd leave him. He dyes his hair and that's bad enough.'"
"Your opera-glass magnifies," said Achille Pigoult to Madame Mollot,
who laughed.
"Well, the tiger of the handsome count, drunk as he is, is now riding
to Troyes to post a letter, and he'll get there, as they say, in five-
quarters of an hour."
"I'd like to have that tiger," said Vinet.
|
