| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: the clear and the noble combined with the easy and the natural that
in spite of her eminent modern situation she suggested no sort of
sister-hood with the "fast" girl. Modern she was indeed, and made
Paul Overt, who loved old colour, the golden glaze of time, think
with some alarm of the muddled palette of the future. He couldn't
get used to her interest in the arts he cared for; it seemed too
good to be real - it was so unlikely an adventure to tumble into
such a well of sympathy. One might stray into the desert easily -
that was on the cards and that was the law of life; but it was too
rare an accident to stumble on a crystal well. Yet if her
aspirations seemed at one moment too extravagant to be real they
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: kindness. Were we all of one way of thinking, our religious dispositions
would want matter for probation; and on this liberal principle, I look
on the various denominations among us, to be like children of the same family,
differing only, in what is called, their Christian names.
In page forty, I threw out a few thoughts on the propriety of a
Continental Charter, (for I only presume to offer hints, not plans)
and in this place, I take the liberty of rementioning the subject,
by observing, that a charter is to be understood as a bond
of solemn obligation, which the whole enters into,
to support the right of every separate part,
whether of religion, personal freedom, or property.
Common Sense |
