| 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: he, "your majesty just now told me that, in the present
state of England, a million would suffice for the recovery
of your kingdom."
"To attempt it at least, monsieur, and to die as a king if I
should not succeed."
"Well, then, sire, let your majesty, according to the
promise you have made me, have the goodness to listen to
what I have to say." Charles made an affirmative sign with
his head. Athos walked straight up to the door, the bolts of
which he drew, after looking to see if anybody was near, and
then returned. "Sire," said he, "your majesty has kindly
Ten Years Later |
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 Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: God; and so goodnight, Master Will.
SHAKESPEAR. Goodnight, great Elizabeth. God save the Queen!
ELIZABETH. Amen.
_Exeunt severally: she to her chamber: he, in custody of the warder,
to the gate nearest Blackfriars._
AYOT, ST. LAWRENCE, _20th June_ 1910.
Notes on the editing: Italicized text is delimited with underlines
("_"). Punctuation and spelling retained as in the printed text.
Shaw intentionally spelled many words according to a non-standard
system. For example, "don't" is given as "dont" (without apostrophe),
"Dr." is given as "Dr" (without a period at the end), and
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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 When a Man Marries by Mary Roberts Rinehart: and was squinting into it, when Bella came downstairs. It was her
first appearance, but as she was always late, nobody noticed.
When she stopped, just above us on the stairs, however, we looked
up, and she was holding to the rail and trembling perceptibly.
"Mr. Harbison, will you--can you come upstairs?" she asked. Her
voice was strained, almost reedy, and her lips were white.
Mr. Harbison stared up at her, with the telephone box in his
hands.
"Why--er--certainly," he said, "but, unless it's very important,
I'd like to fix this talking machine. We want to make a food
record."
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