| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: master, or do they not even allow that?
Nay, he said; of course they do not allow it.
Then you have a master?
Yes, my tutor; there he is.
And is he a slave?
To be sure; he is our slave, he replied.
Surely, I said, this is a strange thing, that a free man should be governed
by a slave. And what does he do with you?
He takes me to my teachers.
You do not mean to say that your teachers also rule over you?
Of course they do.
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: job by a few articles and a pamphlet. He was known to be a mouthpiece
of a banker who was said to have paid him largely, and from whom he
was supposed to expect some patronage in return for his championship.
Marcas, disgusted by men and things, worn out by five years of
fighting, regarded as a free lance rather than as a great leader,
crushed by the necessity of earning his daily bread, which hindered
him from gaining ground, in despair at the influence exerted by money
over mind, and given over to dire poverty, buried himself in a garret,
to make thirty sous a day, the sum strictly answering to his needs.
Meditation had leveled a desert all round him. He read the papers to
be informed of what was going on. Pozzo di Borgo had once lived like
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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 Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: priest, strove to place the women and children, of whom we had
several on board. But this was no easy task, for the drunken
sailors pushed them aside and tried to spring into the boats, the
first of which overturned, so that all were lost. Just then the
carak gave a lurch before she sank, and, seeing that everything was
over, I called to the priest to follow me, and springing into the
sea I swam for the second boat, which, laden with some shrieking
women, had drifted loose in the confusion. As it chanced I reached
it safely, being a strong swimmer, and was able to rescue the
priest before he sank. Then the vessel reared herself up on her
stern and floated thus for a minute or more, which gave us time to
Montezuma's Daughter |
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 Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: one has she sent to Decatur). A committee has been appointed,
and a report made on the election frauds in our State, and we shall
see, I suppose, whether any help comes of it.
Now, you mustn't think, from all this, that I am an apostate from
the principle of Women's Rights. No, indeed! All the trouble we
have had, as I think will be evident to the millions who read my
words, comes from THE MEN. They have not only made politics
their monopoly, but they have fashioned it into a tremendous,
elaborate system, in which there is precious little of either
principle or honesty. We can and we MUST "run the machine" (to
use another of their vulgar expressions) with them, until we get a
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