| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: I propose to make up for lost time."
"And ye'll rig out the auld tower a bit," said Hobbie, "and live
hearty and neighbour-like wi' the auld family friends, as the
Laird o' Earnscliff should? I can tell ye, my mother--my
grandmother I mean--but, since we lost our ain mother, we ca' her
sometimes the tane, and sometimes the tother--but, ony gate, she
conceits hersell no that distant connected wi' you."
"Very true, Hobbie, and I will come to the Heugh-foot to dinner
to-morrow with all my heart."
"Weel, that's kindly said! We are auld neighbours, an we were
nae kin--and my gude-dame's fain to see you--she clavers about
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: of Orange's fleet when he came to that coast, and as they entered
into Tor Bay to land--the Prince and his army being in a fleet of
about 600 sail of transport ships, besides 50 sail of men-of-war of
the line, all which, with a fair wind and fine weather, came to an
anchor there at once.
This town, as most of the towns of Devonshire are, is full of
Dissenters, and a very large meeting-house they have here. How
they act here with respect to the great dispute about the doctrine
of the Trinity, which has caused such a breach among those people
at Exeter and other parts of the county, I cannot give any account
of. This town sends two members to Parliament.
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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 Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: hands, and broken up in a thousand different ways; the absence of
a central government prevented the nations of Europe from
advancing with energy in any straightforward course.
We have shown that in the United States no central
administration and no dependent series of public functionaries
exist. Local authority has been carried to lengths which no
European nation could endure without great inconvenience, and
which has even produced some disadvantageous consequences in
America. But in the United States the centralization of the
Government is complete; and it would be easy to prove that the
national power is more compact than it has ever been in the old
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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 At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: The hissing noise which had first attracted my attention
was issuing from its throat, and seemed to be directed
at something beyond and below me which I could not see.
The ledge upon which I stood terminated abruptly a few
paces farther on, and as I reached the end I saw the cause
of the reptile's agitation.
Some time in past ages an earthquake had produced a fault
at this point, so that beyond the spot where I stood
the strata had slipped down a matter of twenty feet.
The result was that the continuation of my ledge lay twenty
feet below me, where it ended as abruptly as did the end
At the Earth's Core |
