| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: Hinting a rumor of some ancient guilt.
So shall I slay the wretch without a blow,
Spare me to celebrate his overthrow,
And nurse my valor for another foe.
Joel Buxter
RUSSIAN, n. A person with a Caucasian body and a Mongolian soul. A
Tartar Emetic.
S
SABBATH, n. A weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God
made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh. Among the
Jews observance of the day was enforced by a Commandment of which this
The Devil's Dictionary |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: and dismantling our walls, which had preserved their own from falling. She
thought that she would no longer defend the Hellenes, when enslaved either
by one another or by the barbarians, and did accordingly. This was our
feeling, while the Lacedaemonians were thinking that we who were the
champions of liberty had fallen, and that their business was to subject the
remaining Hellenes. And why should I say more? for the events of which I
am speaking happened not long ago and we can all of us remember how the
chief peoples of Hellas, Argives and Boeotians and Corinthians, came to
feel the need of us, and, what is the greatest miracle of all, the Persian
king himself was driven to such extremity as to come round to the opinion,
that from this city, of which he was the destroyer, and from no other, his
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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 Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: neighbor.
The virago overheard him,--for in paroxysms of passion the organs are
either paralyzed or trebly acute,--and she forthwith applied to
Celestin's ear the most vigorous blow that ever resounded in a
Parisian perfumery.
"Learn to respect women, my angel," she said, "and don't smirch the
names of the people you rob."
"Madame," said Madame Birotteau, entering from the back-shop, where
she happened to be with her husband,--whom Pillerault was persuading
to go with him, while Cesar, to obey the law, was humbly expressing
his willingness to go to prison,--"madame, for heaven's sake do not
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
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 Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: so far as they abate the integrity and exactness of their method,
which I am told of late is much omitted; I say, so far, that
reputation will certainly abate in the markets they go to, which
are principally in Portugal and Italy. This corporation is
governed by a particular set of men who are called governors of the
Dutch Bay Hall. And in the same building is the Dutch church.
2. The guildhall of the town, called by them the moot hall, to
which is annexed the town gaol.
3. The workhouse, being lately enlarged, and to which belongs a
corporation or a body of the inhabitants, consisting of sixty
persons incorporated by Act of Parliament Anno 1698 for taking care
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