| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: Salary of Dr. Hagberg, Private Secretary to the Chief Justice 100
Total monthly salary to four whites, one of them paid against His
Majesty's protest $1155
ON THE OTHER HAND
Total monthly payments to and for His Majesty the King, including
allowance and hire of three clerks, one of these placed under the
rubric of extraordinary expenses $95
This looks strange enough and mean enough already. But we have
ground of comparison in the practice of Brandeis.
Brandeis, white prime minister $200
Tamasese (about) 160
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: that your royal highness will be pleased with my
arrangement, it being the expression of my boundless desire
to make myself agreeable to you."
"Nothing can be more gracious toward us," said Madame, who
had more than once consulted the looks of her husband during
the reading of the letter. "The king here!" exclaimed she,
in a rather louder tone than would have been necessary to
preserve secrecy.
"Monsieur," said his royal highness in his turn, "you will
offer my thanks to M. de Conde, and express to him my
gratitude for the honor he has done me."
Ten Years Later |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: her motherhood. Hence a certain melancholy, a certain inexplicable
sadness which surprises men, who are one and all distracted from any
such concentration of their souls by the cares of life and the
continual necessity for action. All true love becomes to a woman an
active contemplation, which is more or less lucid, more or less
profound, according to her nature.
"Come, my dear, show your home to Monsieur Emile," said the countess,
whose mind was so pre-occupied that she forgot La Pechina, who was the
ostensible object of her visit.
The interior of the restored pavilion was in keeping with its
exterior. On the ground-floor the old divisions had been replaced, and
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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 La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: the utmost that the hour could give her, as if each hour had been her
last.
Louis had worked at night, unknown to his mother, and made immense
progress between June and September. In algebra he had come as far as
equations with two unknown quantities; he had studied descriptive
geometry, and drew admirably well; in fact, he was prepared to pass
the entrance examination of the Ecole polytechnique.
Sometimes of an evening he went down to the bridge of Tours. There was
a lieutenant there on half-pay, an Imperial naval officer, whose manly
face, medal, and gait had made an impression on the boy's imagination,
and the officer on his side had taken a liking to the lad, whose eyes
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