| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: keep turnin' up every ten minutes or so! We
thought we'd lost forty-two men by straight
count, but if they keep on a-comin' this way, we'll
git th' comp'ny all back by mornin' yit. Where
was yeh?"
"Over on th' right. I got separated"--began
the youth with considerable glibness.
But his friend had interrupted hastily. "Yes,
an' he got shot in th' head an' he's in a fix, an' we
must see t' him right away." He rested his rifle
in the hollow of his left arm and his right around
The Red Badge of Courage |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: wont to be. There was buried Saint John the Baptist between two
prophets, Elisha and Abdon; but he was beheaded in the castle of
Macharim beside the Dead Sea, and after he was translated of his
disciples, and buried at Samaria. And there let Julianus Apostata
dig him up and let burn his bones (for he was at that time emperor)
and let winnow the ashes in the wind. But the finger that shewed
our Lord, saying, ECCE AGNUS DEI; that is to say, 'Lo! the Lamb of
God,' that would never burn, but is all whole; - that finger let
Saint Thecla, the holy virgin, be born into the hill of Sebast; and
there make men great feast.
In that place was wont to be a fair church; and many other there
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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 Common Sense by Thomas Paine: And in order that nothing may pass into a law but what is satisfactorily
just not less than three fifths of the Congress to be called a majority--
He that will promote discord, under a government so equally formed as this,
would have joined Lucifer in his revolt.
But as there is a peculiar delicacy, from whom, or in what manner,
this business must first arise, and as it seems most agreeable
and consistent, that it should come from some intermediate body
between the governed and the governors, that is, between the Congress
and the people. let a CONTINENTAL CONFERENCE be held, in the following manner,
and for the following purpose.
A committee of twenty-six members of Congress, viz. two for each colony.
Common Sense |
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 A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: dressed in a silk robe, with a turban on his head, to which were
fastened some rings of very neat workmanship, which fell down upon
his forehead. All kept silence for some time, and the King told us
by his interpreter that we were welcome to his dominions, that he
had been informed we were to come by the Emperor his father, and
that he condoled the hardships we had undergone at sea. He desired
us not to be under any concern at finding ourselves in a country so
distant from our own, for those dominions were ours, and he and the
Emperor his father would give us all the proofs we could desire of
the sincerest affection. We returned him thanks for this promise of
his favour, and after a short conversation went away. Immediately
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