| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: "Ay, but it will hardly prove politics in your meaning, my friend,"
said the gratified Miller. "A revolution, if you like, and I think I
can promise you that historical writers shall date from Mr. Balfour's
cause. But properly guided, Mr. Stewart, tenderly guided, it shall
prove a peaceful revolution."
"And if the damned Campbells get their ears rubbed, what care I?" cries
Stewart, smiting down his fist.
It will be thought I was not very well pleased with all this, though I
could scarce forbear smiling at a kind of innocency in these old
intriguers. But it was not my view to have undergone so many sorrows
for the advancement of Sheriff Miller or to make a revolution in the
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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 Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: shoulders extended two small arms; at least, they
seemed small beside so many legs.
This odd creature was dressed in the regulation
clothing of the Munchkin people, a dark blue coat neatly
fitting the long body and each pair of legs having a
pair of sky-blue trousers, with blue-tinted stockings
and blue leather shoes turned up at the pointed toes.
"I wonder who you are?" said Polychrome the Canary,
fluttering above the strange creature, who had probably
been asleep on the path.
"I sometimes wonder, myself, who I am," replied the
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: to header material.
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#STARTMARK#
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
March 4, 1865
Fellow countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath
of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended
address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat
in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper.
Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations
have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great
Second Inaugural Address |
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 Theaetetus by Plato: aspect acting in harmony and then again opposed. They introduce a system
and order into the knowledge of our being; and yet, like many other general
terms, are often in advance of our actual analysis or observation.
According to some writers the inward sense is only the fading away or
imperfect realization of the outward. But this leaves out of sight one
half of the phenomenon. For the mind is not only withdrawn from the world
of sense but introduced to a higher world of thought and reflection, in
which, like the outward sense, she is trained and educated. By use the
outward sense becomes keener and more intense, especially when confined
within narrow limits. The savage with little or no thought has a quicker
discernment of the track than the civilised man; in like manner the dog,
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