| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The White Moll by Frank L. Packard: hideous ghost about the bare and miserable garret, and which woke
her at night with its whispering voice - which was the voice of
intuition.
Rhoda Gray drew her shawl closer around her shoulders and shivered,
as now, from shuffling down the block in the guise of Gypsy Nan,
she halted before the street door of what fate, for the moment, had
thrust upon her as a home; and shivered again, as, with abhorrence,
she pushed the door open and stepped forward into the black,
unlighted hallway. Soul, mind and body were in revolt to-night.
Even faith, the simple faith in God that she had known since
childhood, was wavering. There seemed nothing but horror around
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: constancy upon my studies; and made out to endure the time till Alan
should arrive, or I might hear word of Catriona by the means of James
More. I had altogether three letters in the time of our separation.
One was to announce their arrival in the town of Dunkirk in France,
from which place James shortly after started alone upon a private
mission. This was to England and to see Lord Holderness; and it has
always been a bitter thought that my good money helped to pay the
charges of the same. But he has need of a long spoon who soups with
the de'il, or James More either. During this absence, the time was to
fall due for another letter; and as the letter was the condition of his
stipend, he had been so careful as to prepare it beforehand and leave
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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 The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: go into battle, Sor, these cowardly legs of mine will run away
with me."
As the war went on, Mr. Lincoln objected more and more to
approving sentences of death by court-martial, and either
pardoned them outright, or delayed the execution "until further
orders," which orders were never given by the great-hearted,
merciful man. Secretary Stanton and certain generals complained
bitterly that if the President went on pardoning soldiers he
would ruin the discipline of the army; but Secretary Stanton had
a warm heart, and it is doubtful if he ever willingly enforced
the justice that he criticized the President for tempering with
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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 Lesser Hippias by Plato: Hippias has been making? Why do you not either refute his words, if he
seems to you to have been wrong in any point, or join with us in commending
him? There is the more reason why you should speak, because we are now
alone, and the audience is confined to those who may fairly claim to take
part in a philosophical discussion.
SOCRATES: I should greatly like, Eudicus, to ask Hippias the meaning of
what he was saying just now about Homer. I have heard your father,
Apemantus, declare that the Iliad of Homer is a finer poem than the Odyssey
in the same degree that Achilles was a better man than Odysseus; Odysseus,
he would say, is the central figure of the one poem and Achilles of the
other. Now, I should like to know, if Hippias has no objection to tell me,
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