| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: and, were we to be reduced again suddenly to a state of nature, a company
of highly civilised men and women would at once, as we have before
remarked, find their social value completely inverted; landed on a desert
shore, unarmed and naked, to encounter wild beasts and savages, and to
combat nature for food, the primitive scale of human values would at once
reassert itself. It would not then be the mighty financier, the learned
judge, or great poet and scholar who would be sought after, but the
thickest-headed navvy who could throw a stone so exactly that he brought
down a bird, and who could in a day raise a wall which would shelter the
group; and the man so powerful that he could surely strike an enemy or wild
beast dead with his club, would at once be objects of social regard and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: hillside, just where a stream has cut for itself a narrow
canyon, filled with pines. The pines go right up overhead; a
little more and the stream might have played, like a fire-
hose, on the Toll House roof. In front the ground drops as
sharply as it rises behind. There is just room for the road
and a sort of promontory of croquet ground, and then you can
lean over the edge and look deep below you through the wood.
I said croquet GROUND, not GREEN; for the surface was of
brown, beaten earth. The toll-bar itself was the only other
note of originality: a long beam, turning on a post, and
kept slightly horizontal by a counterweight of stones.
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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 The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: at the rent in his coat, Muller asked for needle and thread that
he might repair it sufficiently to get home.
"Oh, don't bother about sewing it; I'll lend you one of mine,"
exclaimed Johann. "I'll carry this one home for you, for I'm not
going to stay here alone - I'd be afraid. I'm going to a friend's
house. You can find me there any time you need me. You'd better
take the key of the apartment and give it to the police."
The detective had no particular fondness for the task of sewing,
and he was glad to accept the valet's friendly offering. He was
rather astonished at the evident costliness of the garment the
young man handed him, and when he spoke of it, the valet could
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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 Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power
to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . .
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . .
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . .
and that government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . .
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