| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: strain!
"Alas, yes, madame, I have come to save what is dearer to you than
life--your honor. Compose yourself and get dressed, we must go to the
Duchesse de Grandlieu; happily for you, you are not the only person
compromised."
"But at the Palais, yesterday, Leontine burned, I am told, all the
letters found at poor Lucien's."
"But, madame, behind Lucien there was Jacques Collin!" cried the
magistrate's wife. "You always forget that horrible companionship
which beyond question led to that charming and lamented young man's
end. That Machiavelli of the galleys never loses his head! Monsieur
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: Being our greatest: yea, and you must give it--
And sure I think this fruit is hung too high
For any mouth to gape for save a queen's--
Nay, I mean nothing: so then, get you gone,
Being so very wilful you must go.'
Lightly, her suit allowed, she slipt away,
And while she made her ready for her ride,
Her father's latest word hummed in her ear,
'Being so very wilful you must go,'
And changed itself and echoed in her heart,
'Being so very wilful you must die.'
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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 Mother by Owen Wister: "But this I saw no reason for; and on Tuesday it had gained seven points
further. Ethel still more strongly urged me to sell it. I must freely
admit that." And the narrator paused reflectively.
"Thank you, Richard," said Ethel from the sofa. "And I admit that I could
give you no reason for my request, except that it all seemed so sudden.
And--yes--there was one other thing. But that was even more silly."
"I believe I know what you mean," replied Richard, "and I shall come to
it presently. If any one was silly, it was not you."
"I did not sell Amalgamated Electric on Wednesday, and on Thursday a
doubt about the increased dividend began to be circulated. The stock,
nevertheless, after a forenoon of weakness, rallied. Moreover a check for
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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 The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: dead.' " Mr. Motley takes a less charitable view of the great
Emperor. His generous indignation against all persecutors makes
him severe; and in one of his earlier volumes, while speaking of
the famous edicts for the suppression of heresy in the
Netherlands, he somewhere uses the word "murder." Without
attempting to palliate the crime of persecution, I doubt if it is
quite fair to Charles to call him a murderer. We must not forget
that persecution, now rightly deemed an atrocious crime, was once
really considered by some people a sacred duty; that it was none
other than the compassionate Isabella who established the Spanish
Inquisition; and that the "bloody" Mary Tudor was a woman who
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
