| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: Earl of Rochester extended his favour and friendship towards
Dryden, gratified by which, the poet had, after the manner of
those days, dedicated a play to him, "Marriage a la Mode." This
favour his lordship received with graciousness, and no doubt
repaid with liberality. After a while, Dryden, led by choice or
interest, sought a new patron in the person of the Earl of
Mulgrave. For this nobleman Rochester had long entertained a
bitter animosity, which had arisen from rivalry, and had been
intensified from the fact that Rochester, refusing to fight him,
had been branded as a coward. Not daring to attack the peer,
Rochester resolved to avenge himself upon the poet. In order to
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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 Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: me, but I jumped a hedge without moving on my horse!"
Or again:
"We were with some women, De Marsay and I, and upon my word of honor,
I was----" etc.
Thus Paul de Manerville could not be classed amongst the great,
illustrious, and powerful family of fools who succeed. He would one
day be a deputy. For the time he was not even a young man. His friend,
De Marsay, defined him thus: "You ask me what is Paul? Paul? Why, Paul
de Manerville!"
"I am surprised, my dear fellow," he said to De Marsay, "to see you
here on a Sunday."
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: young once, and I am sure I was never ungenerously thrust back. I
hardly know what to say. The way for a young man to rise is to
improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that anybody
wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you that suspicion and
jealousy never did help any man in any situation. There may
sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and
they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from
its true channel to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about
and see if this feeling has not injured every person you have
ever known to fall into it."
He was about forty years old when he wrote this letter. By some
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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 The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: that he had brought home from sea. I was familiar with the subject
of the decadence of shipping interests in all its affecting
branches, having been already some time in Dunnet, and I felt sure
that Captain Littlepage's mind had now returned to a safe level.
As we came down the hill toward the village our ways divided,
and when I had seen the old captain well started on a smooth piece
of sidewalk which would lead him to his own door, we parted, the
best of friends. "Step in some afternoon," he said, as
affectionately as if I were a fellow-shipmaster wrecked on the lee
shore of age like himself. I turned toward home, and presently met
Mrs. Todd coming toward me with an anxious expression.
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