| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Burning Daylight by Jack London: hundred, equals twelve thousand minutes a year, just for you,
just for one person. Let's see: that's two hundred whole hours.
Suppose I save two hundred hours a year for thousands of other
folks,--that's farming some, ain't it?"
Dede could only nod breathlessly. She had caught the contagion
of his enthusiasm, though she had no clew as to how this great
time-saving was to be accomplished.
"Come on," he said. "Let's ride up that hill, and when I get you
out on top where you can see something, I'll talk sense."
A small footpath dropped down to the dry bed of the canon, which
they crossed before they began the climb. The slope was steep
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: local position of Ilion among the rivers of the plain, as a proof
that it was not built till long after the Deluge.
(3) Plutarch remarks that the ONLY evidence Greece possesses of the
truth that the legendary power of Athens is no 'romance or idle
story,' is the public and sacred buildings. This is an instance of
the exaggerated importance given to ruins against which Thucydides
is warning us.
(4) The fictitious sale in the Roman marriage PER COEMPTIONEM was
originally, of course, a real sale.
(5) Notably, of course, in the case of heat and its laws.
(6) Cousin errs a good deal in this respect. To say, as he did,
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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 Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: stood Foster's cottage. She would help her mother
to give their tea to the younger children, wash up
the crockery, kiss the little ones, and go back to
the farm. That was all. All the rest, all the
change, all the relaxation. She never seemed to
wish for anything more. And then she fell in love.
She fell in love silently, obstinately--perhaps help-
lessly. It came slowly, but when it came it worked
like a powerful spell; it was love as the Ancients
understood it: an irresistible and fateful impulse--
a possession! Yes, it was in her to become haunted
Amy Foster |
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 Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: by such abstract discomforts as being shut out from a nearer approach
to your neighbour's soul; which is on the face of it foolish,
the probability being that he hasn't got one.
The rockets are all out. The gardener, in a fit of inspiration,
put them right along the very front of two borders, and I don't
know what his feelings can be now that they are all flowering
and the plants behind are completely hidden; but I have learned
another lesson, and no future gardener shall be allowed
to run riot among my rockets in quite so reckless a fashion.
They are charming things, as delicate in colour as in scent,
and a bowl of them on my writing-table fills the room with fragrance.
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
