| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: whether he was to frown or to smile.
my uncle Toby, turning are Yorick, resumed the case at Limerick, more
intelligibly than he had begun it,--and so settled the point for my father
at once.
Chapter 3.XXXVIII.
It was undoubtedly, said my uncle Toby, a great happiness for myself and
the corporal, that we had all along a burning fever, attended with a most
raging thirst, during the whole five-and-twenty days the flux was upon us
in the camp; otherwise what my brother calls the radical moisture, must, as
I conceive it, inevitably have got the better.--My father drew in his lungs
top-full of air, and looking up, blew it forth again, as slowly as he
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: it costs nothing. Des Grassins is getting along very well. I am
satisfied with him. The old fish is doing Charles a good service, and
gratis too. He is making a very good settlement of that poor deceased
Grandet's business. Hoo! hoo!" he muttered, with his mouth full, after
a pause, "how good it is! Eat some, wife; that will feed you for at
least two days."
"I am not hungry. I am very poorly; you know that."
"Ah, bah! you can stuff yourself as full as you please without danger,
you're a Bertelliere; they are all hearty. You are a bit yellow,
that's true; but I like yellow, myself."
The expectation of ignominious and public death is perhaps less
Eugenie Grandet |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: at all by the other.
Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our
respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall
between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of
the presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different
parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain
face to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile,
must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make
that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after
separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than
friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced
|
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 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: the most of three days in making imaginary sketches of Pete and his
daily environment. She imagined some half dozen women in love with
him and thought he must lean dangerously toward an indefinite one,
whom she pictured with great charms of person, but with an
altogether contemptible disposition.
She thought he must live in a blare of pleasure. He had friends,
and people who were afraid of him.
She saw the golden glitter of the place where Pete was to take
her. An entertainment of many hues and many melodies where she was
afraid she might appear small and mouse-colored.
Her mother drank whiskey all Friday morning. With lurid face
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
