| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: Just get behind me and push."
The Good Government
"WHAT a happy land you are!" said a Republican Form of Government
to a Sovereign State. "Be good enough to lie still while I walk
upon you, singing the praises of universal suffrage and descanting
upon the blessings of civil and religious liberty. In the meantime
you can relieve your feelings by cursing the one-man power and the
effete monarchies of Europe."
"My public servants have been fools and rogues from the date of
your accession to power," replied the State; "my legislative
bodies, both State and municipal, are bands of thieves; my taxes
Fantastic Fables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: off early and come down into Kandersteg and up these zigzags and
here and here, and so past this Daubensee to a tiny inn--it won't
be busy yet, though; we may get it all to ourselves--on the brim
of the steepest zigzag you can imagine, thousands of feet of
zigzag; and you will sit and eat lunch with me and look out
across the Rhone Valley and over blue distances beyond blue
distances to the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa and a long regiment of
sunny, snowy mountains. And when we see them we shall at once
want to go to them--that's the way with beautiful things--and
down we shall go, like flies down a wall, to Leukerbad, and so to
Leuk Station, here, and then by train up the Rhone Valley and
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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 Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: origin largely in the unstable reactions of adolescence have much
the better prognosis, but it seems that not enough evidence has
been accumulated as yet to justify us in this conclusion, which,
we acknowledge, may prove to be true.
Irritative Conditions. In the same way the various types of
irritative conditions, physical and mental, may be considered as
exciting moments. Individuals with a tendency to pathological
lying will no doubt show aggravation of the phenomenon at periods
of particular stress. We have heard it suggested in several
cases by relatives that the menstrual period, for instance,
brings about an access of tendency to prevarication. We would
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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 Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: inspiration came, she spoke, for the first few moments, in a low
voice, and not invariably distinct utterance. Her discourse gave
evidence of an imagination hopelessly entangled with her reason;
it was a vague and incomprehensible rhapsody, which, however,
seemed to spread its own atmosphere round the hearer's soul, and
to move his feelings by some influence unconnected with the
words. As she proceeded, beautiful but shadowy images would
sometimes be seen, like bright things moving in a turbid river;
or a strong and singularly-shaped idea leaped forth, and seized
at once on the understanding or the heart. But the course of her
unearthly eloquence soon led her to the persecutions of her sect,
Twice Told Tales |
