| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: about you. Our enterprise is grand, and deserves success, and I
hope in God it will meet it. If my object was merely gain of
money, I should say, think whether it is best to save what we
can, and abandon the place; but the very idea is like a dagger to
my heart." This extract is sufficient to show the spirit and the
views which actuated Mr. Astor in this great undertaking.
Week after week and month after month elapsed, without anything
to dispel the painful incertitude that hung over every part of
this enterprise. Though a man of resolute spirit, and not easily
cast down, the dangers impending over this darling scheme of his
ambition, had a gradual effect upon the spirits of Mr. Astor. He
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger: conclusions concerning this strange business of bringing children into
the world.
Every year I receive thousands of letters from women in all parts of
America, desperate appeals to aid them to extricate themselves from
the trap of compulsory maternity. Lest I be accused of bias and
exaggeration in drawing my conclusions from these painful human
documents, I prefer to present a number of typical cases recorded in
the reports of the United States Government, and in the evidence of
trained and impartial investigators of social agencies more generally
opposed to the doctrine of Birth Control than biased in favor of it.
A perusal of the reports on infant mortality in widely varying
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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 Cromwell by William Shakespeare: Yet keeping on his course, grows to a sea.
And likewise Wolsey, the wonder of our age,
His birth as mean as mine, a Butcher's son,
Now who within this land a greater man?
Then, Cromwell, cheer thee up, and tell thy soul,
That thou maist live to flourish and control.
[Enter Old Cromwell.]
OLD CROMWELL.
Tom Cromwell! what, Tom, I say!
CROMWELL.
Do you call, sir.
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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 Arizona Nights by Stewart Edward White: being squeezed in the fire of suffering.
But the slight movement of the falling object roused him. He
swung open the gate. The pony bowed his head delightedly. He
was not tired, but his reins depended straight to the ground, and
it was a point of honour with him to stand. At the saddle born,
in its sling, hung the riata, the "rope" without which no cowman
ever stirs abroad, but which Senor Johnson had rarely used of
late. Senor Johnson threw the reins over, seized the pony's mane
in his left hand, held the pommel with his right, and so swung
easily aboard, the pony's jump helping him to the saddle. Wheel
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