| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: man."
"Aure, my dear Aure, take care! if you take to calling names
again, you know the effect they produce upon me, and I shall
adore you." And so saying, Malicorne drew the young girl a
second time towards him. But at that instant a step
resounded on the staircase. The young people were so close,
that they would have been surprised in the arms of each
other, if Montalais had not violently pushed Malicorne, with
his back against the door, just then opening. A loud cry,
followed by angry reproaches, immediately resounded. It was
Madame de Saint-Remy who uttered the cry and the angry
Ten Years Later |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: high time you looked for some other friend than the great king." The
secretary reported the comment of the Athenian envoy, and produced
presently an altered copy of the document, with a clause inserted: "If
the Athenians have any better and juster views to propound, let them
come to the Persian court and explain them."[40]
[40] See Grote, "H. G." x. 402; and "Ages." viii. 3.
Thus the ambassadors returned each to his own home and were variously
received. Timagoras, on the indictment of Leon, who proved that his
fellow-commissioner not only refused to lodge with him at the king's
court, but in every way played into the hands of Pelopidas, was put to
death. Of the other joint commissioners, the Eleian, Archidamus, was
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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 Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: serviceable exposure of myself.
I suppose, when I am done, I shall find that I have forgotten
much that was most influential, as I see already I have
forgotten Thoreau, and Hazlitt, whose paper 'On the Spirit of
Obligations' was a turning-point in my life, and Penn, whose
little book of aphorisms had a brief but strong effect on me,
and Mitford's TALES OF OLD JAPAN, wherein I learned for the
first time the proper attitude of any rational man to his
country's laws - a secret found, and kept, in the Asiatic
islands. That I should commemorate all is more than I can
hope or the Editor could ask. It will be more to the point,
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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 Mother by Owen Wister: were to meet her,' continued Ethel, 'I feel I should say something that I
should regret. Oh, Richard, I suppose we shall have to give up that house
on Park Avenue!'"
"I put a cheerful and even insular face on the matter, for I could not
bear to see Ethel so depressed. But it was hard work for me. Some few of
my investments were evidently good; but it always seemed as if it was
into these that I had happened to put not much money, while the bulk of
my fortune was entangled in the others. Besides the usual Midsummer
faintness that overtakes the stock market, my own specialties were a good
deal more than faint. On the 20th of August I took the afternoon train to
spend my two weeks' holiday at Lenox; and during much of the journey I
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