| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Iron Puddler by James J. Davis: poisonous education took but one generation to turn the German
working men into a race of blood-letters. Wrong education tears a
nation down. Right education will build it up. One generation of
right education will remake the world. Who will furnish this new
education? I, for one, will do my share, and more. My heart is in
this one cause, and my whole life from now on shall be devoted to
it.
"You will hear me speaking for it on every rostrum and in every
schoolhouse in America. I have been handicapped in life because I
had no education. But it is better to have no education than a
false one, for I was left free to know the truth when I found it.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: mustard-pot and vinegar-cruet, and the entire castor of her
countenance.
"What's the matter with you, young man?"
"Get the axe! For God's sake, run for the doctor, some one, while I
pry it open!"
"Look here," said the landlady, quickly putting down the
vinegar-cruet, so as to have one hand free; "look here; are you
talking about prying open any of my doors?"--and with that she seized
my arm. "What's the matter with you? What's the matter with you,
shipmate?"
In as calm, but rapid a manner as possible, I gave her to understand
Moby Dick |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: "We'll gain it for your portion yet, Miss Margaret," said Mr. Van
Horn, nodding to Mr. Uxbridge, and bidding William drive on. He
returned the next day, and we settled into the routine of hotel
life. A few mornings after, she sent me to a matinee, which was
given by some of the Opera people, who were in Newport
strengthening the larynx with applications of brine. When the
concert was half over, and the audience were making the usual hum
and stir, I saw Mr. Uxbridge against a pillar, with his hands
incased in pearl-colored gloves, and holding a shiny hat. He turned
half away when he caught my eye, and then darted toward me.
"You have not been much more interested in the music than you are
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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 Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: situations where it is very hard to imagine any possible explanation;
and indeed, if we drive briskly along a good, well-made road in an
open vehicle, we shall experience this sympathy almost at its
fullest. We feel the sharp settle of the springs at some curiously
twisted corner; after a steep ascent, the fresh air dances in our
faces as we rattle precipitately down the other side, and we find it
difficult to avoid attributing something headlong, a sort of ABANDON,
to the road itself.
The mere winding of the path is enough to enliven a long day's walk
in even a commonplace or dreary country-side. Something that we have
seen from miles back, upon an eminence, is so long hid from us, as we
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