| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: write any more.
"MARGUERITE GAUTIER."
The last two words were scarcely legible. I returned the letter
to Armand, who had, no doubt, read it over again in his mind
while I was reading it on paper, for he said to me as he took it:
"Who would think that a kept woman could have written that?" And,
overcome by recollections, he gazed for some time at the writing
of the letter, which he finally carried to his lips.
"And when I think," he went on, "that she died before I could see
her, and that I shall never see her again, when I think that she
did for me what no sister would ever have done, I can not forgive
Camille |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: will only make yourself ridiculous; you will only squander money,
of which you have none too much, and reap public mortification.'
'Ah, but there you make the common mistake, Mr. Romaine!' returned
Alain. 'You despise your adversary. Consider, if you please, how
very disagreeable I could make myself, if I chose. Consider the
position of your PROTEGE - an escaped prisoner! But I play a great
game. I condemn such petty opportunities.'
At this Romaine and I exchanged a glance of triumph. It seemed
manifest that Alain had as yet received no word of Clausel's
recapture and denunciation. At the same moment the lawyer, thus
relieved of the instancy of his fear, changed his tactics. With a
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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 The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: In the great canoe with pinions
Came, he said, a hundred warriors;
Painted white were all their faces
And with hair their chins were covered!
And the warriors and the women
Laughed and shouted in derision,
Like the ravens on the tree-tops,
Like the crows upon the hemlocks.
"Kaw!" they said, "what lies you tell us!
Do not think that we believe them!"
Only Hiawatha laughed not,
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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 The Cavalry General by Xenophon: consists in attacking where the enemy is weakest, even if the point be
some leagues distant. Severity of toil weighs nothing in the scale
against the danger of engaging a force superior to your own.[17]
Still, if on any occasion the enemy advance in any way to place
himself between fortified points that are friendly to you, let him be
never so superior in force, your game is to attack on whichever flank
you can best conceal your advance, or, still better, on both flanks
simultaneously; since, while one detachment is retiring after
delivering its attack, a charge pressed home from the opposite quarter
cannot fail to throw the enemy into confusion and to give safety to
your friends.
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