| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from I Have A Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr.: in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have
come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand
the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also
come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce
urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of
cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now
is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of
segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time
to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is
the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial
injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
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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 Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: May abide without an answer until all have ceased to mourn.
For the children of the dark are more to name than are the wretched,
Or the broken, or the weary, or the baffled, or the shamed:
There are builders of new mansions in the Valley of the Shadow,
And among them are the dying and the blinded and the maimed.
The Wandering Jew
I saw by looking in his eyes
That they remembered everything;
And this was how I came to know
That he was here, still wandering.
For though the figure and the scene
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: How much of it, think you, could be learned at court?"
"Indeed, I cannot say," said the stranger knight:
"but I should apprehend very little."
"And so should I," said the friar: "for we should find very little of our
bold open practice, but should hear abundance of praise of our principles.
To live in seeming fellowship and secret rivalry; to have a hand for all,
and a heart for none; to be everybody's acquaintance, and nobody's friend;
to meditate the ruin of all on whom we smile, and to dread the secret
stratagems of all who smile on us; to pilfer honours and despoil
fortunes, not by fighting in daylight, but by sapping in darkness:
these are arts which the court can teach, but which we, by 'r Lady,
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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 A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: Antonia lived in the Rue du Helder; she had seen and been seen to some
extent, but at the time of her acquaintance with La Palferine she had
not yet 'an establishment.' Antonia was not wanting in the insolence
of old days, now degenerating into rudeness among women of her class.
After a fortnight of unmixed bliss, she was compelled, in the interest
of her civil list, to return to a less exclusive system; and La
Palferine, discovering a certain lack of sincerity in her dealings
with him, sent Madame Antonia a note which made her famous.
" 'MADAME,--Your conduct causes me much surprise and no less
distress. Not content with rending my heart with your disdain, you
have been so little thoughtful as to retain a toothbrush, which my
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