| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Where There's A Will by Mary Roberts Rinehart: yelling for help.
"There is no such rule and you know it, Minnie!" Miss Patty said
angrily. "Come, Nana! We're not learning anything, and there's
nothing to be done until morning, anyhow. My head's whirling."
Mrs. Hutchins went out first.
"The first thing I'D do if I owned this place, I'd get rid
of that red-haired girl," she snapped to Mr. Pierce. "If you
want to know why there are fewer guests here every year, I'll
tell you. SHE'S the reason!" Then she flounced out with her
head up.
(That was pure piffle. The real reason, as every thinking person
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: after keeping water out of her to save ourselves from
being drowned, we frantically poured water into her to
save ourselves from being burnt.
"And she crawled on, do or die, in the serene weather.
The sky was a miracle of purity, a miracle of azure.
The sea was polished, was blue, was pellucid, was spark-
ling like a precious stone, extending on all sides, all
round to the horizon--as if the whole terrestrial globe
had been one jewel, one colossal sapphire, a single gem
fashioned into a planet. And on the luster of the great
calm waters the Judea glided imperceptibly, enveloped
Youth |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: equal breadth; but the next two zones, the one of water, the other of land,
were two stadia, and the one which surrounded the central island was a
stadium only in width. The island in which the palace was situated had a
diameter of five stadia. All this including the zones and the bridge,
which was the sixth part of a stadium in width, they surrounded by a stone
wall on every side, placing towers and gates on the bridges where the sea
passed in. The stone which was used in the work they quarried from
underneath the centre island, and from underneath the zones, on the outer
as well as the inner side. One kind was white, another black, and a third
red, and as they quarried, they at the same time hollowed out double docks,
having roofs formed out of the native rock. Some of their buildings were
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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 Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather
than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather
than let it perish. And the war came.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed
generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it.
These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew
that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen,
perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the
insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed
no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration
Second Inaugural Address |
