| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: peared; there were only the young leaves, full of
sap that had pierced through the centenarian
bark, making the beholder question with surprise
if this patriarch had really given birth to them.
'Yes, it is he, indeed!' cried Prince Andre, and
he felt his heart suffused by the intense joy which
the springtime and this new life gave him . . .
'No, my life cannot end at thirty-one! . . .
It is not enough myself to feel what is within me,
others must know it too! Pierre and that "slip"
of a girl, who would have fled into cloudland,
The Forged Coupon |
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 Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: be no less than extreme rashness to attack them. They therefore
entrenched themselves on a hill over against the enemy's camp, and
though victorious, were under great disadvantages. They saw new
troops arrive every day at the enemy's camp, and their small number
grew less continually; their friends at Mazna could not join them;
they knew not how to procure provisions, and could put no confidence
in the Abyssins; yet recollecting the great things achieved by their
countrymen, and depending on the Divine protection, they made no
doubt of surmounting all difficulties.
Mahomet on his part was not idle; he solicited the assistance of the
Mahometan princes, pressed them with all the motives of religion,
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