| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: display of tenderness toward himself, and that nearness and
dearness with him were never accompanied by any outward
manifestations.
It would never have come into my head, for instance, to walk
up to my father and kiss him or to stroke his hand. I was partly
prevented also from that by the fact that I always looked up to him
with awe, and his spiritual power, his greatness, prevented me from
seeing in him the mere man--the man who was so plaintive and weary
at times, the feeble old man who so much needed warmth and rest.
The only person who could give him that warmth was Masha.
She would go up to him, stroke his hand, caress him, and say
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry: are wisest. They are the magi.
End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of THE GIFT OF THE MAGI.
The Gift of the Magi |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: "Do you mean to say," the boy rushed on, "that there is no eternal
quality in all these things which when it meets my perceptions compels
me to see differences?"
The tutor surveyed his notes. "I can discover no such suggestions here
as you are pleased to make" said he. "But your orriginal researches,"
he continued most obsequiously, "recall our next subject,--Berkeley and
the Idealists." And he smoothed out his notes.
"Let's see," said the second boy, pondering; "I went to two or three
lectures about that time. Berkeley--Berkeley. Didn't he--oh, yes! he
did. He went the whole hog. Nothing's anywhere except in your ideas.
You think the table's there, but it isn't. There isn't any table."
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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 Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: siege, wept bitterly.
'Why do you sorrow thus, Otomie?' I asked at length.
'I did not know that you were awake, husband,' she sobbed in
answer, 'or I would have checked my grief. Husband, I sorrow over
all that has befallen us and my people--also, though these are but
little things, because you are brought low and treated as a man of
no estate, and of the cold comfort that we find here.'
'You have cause, wife,' I answered. 'Say, what will these Otomies
do with us--kill us, or give us up to the Teules?'
'I do not know; to-morrow we shall learn, but for my part I will
not be surrendered living.'
Montezuma's Daughter |
