| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: him to do so. Meanwhile his situation was unpleasant. There was
no light to show him into what sort of apartment he had been led
--the Lady Edith was in immediate attendance on the Queen of
England--and the discovery of his having introduced himself thus
furtively into the royal pavilion might, were it discovered; lead
to much and dangerous suspicion. While he gave way to these
unpleasant reflections, and began almost to wish that he could
achieve his retreat unobserved, he heard a noise of female
voices, laughing, whispering, and speaking, in an adjoining
apartment, from which, as the sounds gave him reason to judge, he
could only be separated by a canvas partition. Lamps were
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: fact that, when he wished to help the city or his friends with money,
he might have done so by the aid of others, goes a long way to prove
his indifference to the lure of riches; since, had he been in the
habit of selling his favour, or of playing the part of benefactor for
pay, there had been no room for a sense of indebtedness.[3] It is only
the recipient of gratuitous kindness who is ever ready to minister to
his benefactor, both in return for the kindness itself and for the
confidence implied in his selection as the fitting guardian of a good
deed on deposit.[4]
[3] Or, "no one would have felt to owe him anything."
[4] See "Cyrop." VI. i. 35; Rutherford, "New Phrynichus," p. 312.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: diffidently and reluctantly, was led to address an anti-slavery
meeting. He was about the age when the younger Pitt entered the
House of Commons; like Pitt, too, he stood up a born orator.
William Lloyd Garrison, who was happily present, writes thus of
Mr. Douglass' maiden effort; "I shall never forget his first
speech at the convention--the extraordinary emotion it excited in
my own mind--the powerful impression it created upon a crowded
auditory, completely taken by surprise. * * * I think I never
hated slavery so intensely as at that moment; certainly, my
perception of the enormous outrage which is inflicted by it on
the godlike nature of its victims, was rendered far more clear
My Bondage and My Freedom |
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: arrest--possibly his execution as well."
So they saw the king, only to meet a stubborn refusal
upon the part of Leopold to accede to their suggestions. He
still was madly in love with Von der Tann's daughter, and
he knew that a blow delivered at her father would only
tend to increase her bitterness toward him. The conspirators
were nonplussed.
They had looked for a comparatively easy road to the
consummation of their desires. What in the world could be
the cause of the king's stubborn desire to protect the man
they knew he feared, hated, and mistrusted with all the
The Mad King |
