| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: which had stimulated her since her resolution was taken upon this
subject.
"There may be danger in it."
"If gold can compensate the risk," said Lady Forester, taking out
her purse.
"I do not such things for the purpose of gain," answered the
foreigner; "I dare not turn my art to such a purpose. If I take
the gold of the wealthy, it is but to bestow it on the poor; nor
do I ever accept more than the sum I have already received from
your servant. Put up your purse, madam; an adept needs not your
gold,"
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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 Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have
come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place
for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
"But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot consecrate-
-we cannot hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power
to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It
is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the
unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
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