| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: stopping, turned his head and called out something
evidently abusive or blasphemous.
"Damn you!" shouted the soldier, who put one
foot a little forward and stopped, after which,
bending his head over his rifle, and raising his
right hand, he rapidly adjusted something, took
aim, and, pointing the gun in the direction of the
fugitive, probably fired, although no sound was
heard. "Smokeless powder, no doubt," thought
the young Tsar, and looking after the fleeing man
saw him take a few hurried steps, and bending
The Forged Coupon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: marechal and the emancipation of the king must have turned everything
topsy turvy, and where you certainly have business, if only to obtain
the marshal's baton which was promised to you. Leave Monseigneur
Etienne to me. But give me your word of honor as a gentleman to
approve whatever I may do for him."
The duke struck his hand into that of his physician as a sign of
complete acceptance, and retired to his own apartments.
When the days of a high and mighty seigneur are numbered, the
physician becomes a personage of importance in the household. It is,
therefore, not surprising to see a former bonesetter so familiar with
the Duc d'Herouville. Apart from the illegitimate ties which connected
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: And, indeed, glancing back at the whole period during which he
remained in the exercise of his authority, no act of deeper
significance in proof of his kingly qualities need be named than this.
He found the cities which he was sent out to govern each and all a
prey to factions, the result of constitutional disturbances consequent
on the cessation of the Athenian empire, and without resort to exile
or sanguinary measures he so disposed them by his healing presence
that civil concord and material prosperity were permanently
maintained. Therefore it was that the Hellenes in Asia deplored his
departure,[17] as though they had lost, not simply a ruler, but a
father or bosom friend, and in the end they showed that their
|
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 Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain: "He struck me en I warn't no way to blame--struck me in de face,
right before folks. En he's al'ays callin' me nigger wench, en hussy,
en all dem mean names, when I's doin' de very bes' I kin.
Oh, Lord, I done so much for him--I lif' him away up to what he is--
en dis is what I git for it."
Sometimes when some outrage of peculiar offensiveness stung her to
the heart, she would plan schemes of vengeance and revel in the fancied
spectacle of his exposure to the world as an imposter and a slave;
but in the midst of these joys fear would strike her; she had made him
too strong; she could prove nothing, and--heavens, she might get sold
down the river for her pains! So her schemes always went for nothing,
|
