| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: A NIGHTMARE
THE MOTHER
IN THE BAYOU
THE SAILOR'S WIFE SPEAKS
HUNTED
A DREAM CHILD
ACROSS THE NIGHT
SEA CHANGES
THE TAVERN OF DESPAIR
COLORS AND SURFACES
A GOLDEN LAD
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Death of the Lion by Henry James: mahogany. He allowed half his income to his wife, from whom he had
succeeded in separating without redundancy of legend. I had a
general faith in his having behaved well, and I had once, in
London, taken Mrs. Paraday down to dinner. He now turned to speak
to the maid, who offered him, on a tray, some card or note, while,
agitated, excited, I wandered to the end of the precinct. The idea
of his security became supremely dear to me, and I asked myself if
I were the same young man who had come down a few days before to
scatter him to the four winds. When I retraced my steps he had
gone into the house, and the woman - the second London post had
come in - had placed my letters and a newspaper on a bench. I sat
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of
the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.
I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution,
the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied,
if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments.
It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision
in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all
the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will
endure forever--it being impossible to destroy it except by some action
not provided for in the instrument itself.
Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an association
|
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 Pupil by Henry James: dignity, never a throb of shame at looking each other in the face,
never any independence or resentment or disgust. If his father or
his brother would only knock some one down once or twice a year!
Clever as they were they never guessed the impression they made.
They were good-natured, yes - as good-natured as Jews at the doors
of clothing-shops! But was that the model one wanted one's family
to follow? Morgan had dim memories of an old grandfather, the
maternal, in New York, whom he had been taken across the ocean at
the age of five to see: a gentleman with a high neck-cloth and a
good deal of pronunciation, who wore a dress-coat in the morning,
which made one wonder what he wore in the evening, and had, or was
|
