| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: unfortunate man,' continued the stranger.
"'By the crime of an unnatural, bloody-minded murderer,' said the
lady.
"'I am answered,' replied the old man, bowing, as if to withdraw.
"'Stop, sir, I command you,' said Lady Bothwell. 'Who are you
that, at such a place and time, come to recall these horrible
recollections? I insist upon knowing.'
"'I am one who intends Lady Bothwell no injury, but, on the
contrary, to offer her the means of doing a deed of Christian
charity, which the world would wonder at, and which Heaven would
reward; but I find her in no temper for such a sacrifice as I was
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: by the time he opened the front door no bottle was to be seen; and
Kokua sat in a chair and started up like one awakened out of sleep.
"I have been drinking all day and making merry," said Keawe. "I
have been with good companions, and now I only come back for money,
and return to drink and carouse with them again."
Both his face and voice were as stern as judgment, but Kokua was
too troubled to observe.
"You do well to use your own, my husband," said she, and her words
trembled.
"O, I do well in all things," said Keawe, and he went straight to
the chest and took out money. But he looked besides in the corner
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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 Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: "This, of course, applies only to passion; in any other sense it would
be socially wrong. Nothing more clearly proves the necessity for
indissoluble marriage than the instability of passion. The two sexes
must be chained up, like wild beasts as they are, by inevitable law,
deaf and mute. Eliminate revenge, and infidelity in love is nothing.
Those who believe that for them there is but one woman in the world
must be in favor of vengeance, and then there is but one form of it--
that of Othello.
"Mine was different."
The words produced in each of us the imperceptible movement which
newspaper writers represent in Parliamentary reports by the words:
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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 Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: "I am from Tann," whispered the old man, in a very low
voice. "His highness, the prince, found the means to obtain
service for me with the new retinue that has replaced the
old which permitted your majesty's escape. There was an-
other from Tann among the former servants here.
"It was through his efforts that you escaped before, you
will recall. I have seen Fritz and learned from him the way,
so that if your majesty does not recall it it will make no
difference, for I know it well, having been over it three
times already since I came here, to be sure that when the
time came that they should recapture you I might lead you
The Mad King |
