| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: Baptiste into the ambulance.
Tramp, tramp, tramp, sounded the militia steadily marching down
Decatur Street.
"Whist! do yez hear!" shouted Finnegan; and the conflict had
ceased ere the yellow river could reflect the sun from the
polished bayonets.
You remember, of course, how long the strike lasted, and how many
battles were fought and lives lost before the final adjustment of
affairs. It was a fearsome war, and many forgot afterwards whose
was the first life lost in the struggle,--poor little Mr.
Baptiste's, whose body lay at the Morgue unclaimed for days
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: stretched a broad aisle lined on either side with soldiery,
and as I looked there entered this aisle at the far end of
the hall, the head of a procession which advanced to the
foot of the throne.
First there marched four officers of the jeddak's Guard
bearing a huge salver on which reposed, upon a cushion
of scarlet silk, a great golden chain with a collar and
padlock at each end. Directly behind these officers came
four others carrying a similar salver which supported the
magnificent ornaments of a prince and princess of the
reigning house of Zodanga.
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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 Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: What will the thunderclap be that will shake down these masses? I know
not, but they will crash down into the midst of things, and overthrow
everything. These are laws of hydrostatics which act on the human
race; the Roman Empire had failed to understand them, and the Barbaric
hordes came down.
"The Barbaric hordes now are the intelligent class. The laws of
overpressure are at this moment acting slowly and silently in our
midst. The Government is the great criminal; it does not appreciate
the two powers to which it owes everything; it has allowed its hands
to be tied by the absurdities of the Contract; it is bound, ready to
be the victim.
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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 Enoch Arden, &c. by Alfred Tennyson: Of early rigid color, under which
Withdrawing by the counter door to that
Which Leolin open'd, she cast back upon him
A piteous glance, and vanish'd. He, as one
Caught in a burst of unexpected storm,
And pelted with outrageous epithets,
Turning beheld the Powers of the House
On either side the hearth, indignant; her,
Cooling her false cheek with a featherfan,
Him glaring, by his own stale devil spurr'd,
And, like a beast hard-ridden, breathing hard.
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