| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: to exercise any censorship whatsoever over the thoughts of men:
that they had identified themselves with the cause of darkness, not
of light; with persecution and torture, with the dragonnades of
Louis XIV., with the murder of Calas and of Urban Grandier; with
celibacy, hysteria, demonology, witchcraft, and the shameful public
scandals, like those of Gauffredi, Grandier, and Pere Giraud, which
had arisen out of mental disease; with forms of worship which seemed
to them (rightly or wrongly) idolatry, and miracles which seemed to
them (rightly or wrongly) impostures; that the clergy interfered
perpetually with the sanctity of family life, as well as with the
welfare of the state; that their evil counsels, and specially those
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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: hope deferred which makes the heart sick.
Not a few men and women came, sad-faced and broken-hearted, to
plead for soldier sons or husbands in prison, or under sentence
of death by court-martial. An inmate of the White House has
recorded the eagerness with which the President caught at any
fact that would justify him in saving the life of a condemned
soldier. He was only merciless when meanness or cruelty were
clearly proved. Cases of cowardice he disliked especially to
punish with death. "It would frighten the poor devils too
terribly to shoot them," he said. On the papers in the case of
one soldier who had deserted and then enlisted again, he wrote:
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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 New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: usual thing; but, my dear sir, you are either going to oblige me in
the little matter of which you are aware, or you shall very
bitterly repent that you ever admitted me to your ante-chamber."
The President laughed aloud.
"That is the way to speak," said he. "You are a man who is a man.
You know the way to my heart, and can do what you like with me.
Will you," he continued, addressing Geraldine, "will you step aside
for a few minutes? I shall finish first with your companion, and
some of the club's formalities require to be fulfilled in private."
With these words he opened the door of a small closet, into which
he shut the Colonel.
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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 Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: while they worked, reading when the hands remained idle, the time passed
with profit to all.
It was real enjoyment to the settlers when in their room, well lighted
with candles, well warmed with coal, after a good dinner, elderberry coffee
smoking in the cups, the pipes giving forth an odoriferous smoke, they
could hear the storm howling without. Their comfort would have been
complete, if complete comfort could ever exist for those who are far from
their fellow-creatures, and without any means of communication with them.
They often talked of their country, of the friends whom they had left, of
the grandeur of the American Republic, whose influence could not but
increase; and Cyrus Harding, who had been much mixed up with the affairs of
The Mysterious Island |
