| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: Lupeaulx hesitated for a single instant, and looked at Madame
Rabourdin, while he inwardly asked himself, "Which shall I permit to
triumph, my hatred for him, or my fancy for her?"
"You have no confidence in my honor," he said, after a pause. "I see
that you will always be to me the author of your SECRET ANALYSIS.
Adieu, madame."
Madame Rabourdin bowed coldly. Celestine and Xavier returned at once
to their own rooms without a word; both were overcome by their
misfortune. The wife thought of the dreadful situation in which she
stood toward her husband. The husband, resolving slowly not to remain
at the ministry but to send in his resignation at once, was lost in a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: to working with factory girls I heard a lot about it.'' The
mother told us later that she thought it probable from what she
now knew that this Mrs. R. may have been largely responsible for
Hazel's tendency to delinquency. Hazel kept this association of
several years' standing quite to herself. The mother remembers
now how Hazel once stayed for hours after school and told a story
in explanation that they felt sure was untrue. The teachers used
to tell the mother that Hazel seemed as if she couldn't pay
attention to her school work. One teacher reported to us that
she remembers Hazel as a girl who seemed peculiar and hysterical.
The other girls called her queer and used to steer clear of her.
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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 Poems of William Blake by William Blake: But I feed not the warbling birds, they fly and seek their food:
But Thel delights in these no more because I fade away
And all shall say, without a use this shining women liv'd,
Or did she only live to be at death the food of worms.
The Cloud reclind upon his airy throne and answerd thus.
Then if thou art the food of worms, O virgin of the skies,
How great thy use, how great thy blessing, every thing that lives.
Lives not alone nor or itself: fear not and I will call,
The weak worm from its lowly bed, and thou shalt hear its voice.
Come forth worm and the silent valley, to thy pensive queen.
The helpless worm arose and sat upon the Lillys leaf,
Poems of William Blake |
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 Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . .
we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power
to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion
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