| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: the instant they are useless."
"Ay, sir?" said Giles Gosling; "then you are from the Low
Countries, the land of pike and caliver?"
"I have been high and low, my friend, broad and wide, far and
near. But here is to thee in a cup of thy sack; fill thyself
another to pledge me, and, if it is less than superlative, e'en
drink as you have brewed."
"Less than superlative?" said Giles Gosling, drinking off the
cup, and smacking his lips with an air of ineffable relish,--"I
know nothing of superlative, nor is there such a wine at the
Three Cranes, in the Vintry, to my knowledge; but if you find
Kenilworth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Collected Articles by Frederick Douglass: of pen or pencil. During ten or fifteen years I had been, as it were,
dragging a heavy chain which no strength of mine could break;
I was not only a slave, but a slave for life. I might become a husband,
a father, an aged man, but through all, from birth to death, from the cradle
to the grave, I had felt myself doomed. All efforts I had previously made
to secure my freedom had not only failed, but had seemed only to rivet
my fetters the more firmly, and to render my escape more difficult.
Baffled, entangled, and discouraged, I had at times asked myself
the question, May not my condition after all be God's work,
and ordered for a wise purpose, and if so, Is not submission my duty?
A contest had in fact been going on in my mind for a long time,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: and good temper."
"Yes," said he, looking not exactly forward; "but there, I think,
ends the resemblance. With all my soul I wish them happy, and rejoice
over every circumstance in favour of it. They have no difficulties
to contend with at home, no opposition, no caprice, no delays.
The Musgroves are behaving like themselves, most honourably and kindly,
only anxious with true parental hearts to promote their daughter's comfort.
All this is much, very much in favour of their happiness;
more than perhaps--"
He stopped. A sudden recollection seemed to occur, and to give him
some taste of that emotion which was reddening Anne's cheeks
Persuasion |
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 Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare: BAPTISTA.
Ay, that Petruchio came.
BIONDELLO.
No, sir; I say his horse comes, with him on his back.
BAPTISTA.
Why, that's all one.
BIONDELLO.
Nay, by Saint Jamy,
I hold you a penny,
A horse and a man
Is more than one,
The Taming of the Shrew |
