| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: be, at least, a platform, as the politicians call it--an agreement
by which we shall all be bound, and which we can afterwards exhibit
as the basis of our success?'
"He meditated a few moments, and then answered--
"`I think not. It resembles too much the thing we are trying to
overthrow. Can you bind a man's belief by making him sign certain
articles of Faith? No: his thought will be free, in spite of it;
and I would have Action--Life--as free as Thought. Our platform--
to adopt your image--has but one plank: Truth. Let each only be
true to himself: BE himself, ACT himself, or herself with the
uttermost candor. We can all agree upon that.'
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: where a daughter was born to them.
Then they moved to a small farm thirteen miles from
Elizabethtown, which they bought on credit, the country being yet
so new that there were places to be had for mere promises to pay.
Farms obtained on such terms were usually of very poor quality,
and this one of Thomas Lincoln's was no exception to the rule. A
cabin ready to be occupied stood on it, however; and not far
away, hidden in a pretty clump of trees and bushes, was a fine
spring of water, because of which the place was known as Rock
Spring Farm. In the cabin on this farm the future President of
the United States was born on February 12, 1809, and here the
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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 The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: as a consequence of his having at the piano, the day before,
kept me, in Flora's interest, so beguiled and befooled.
The stamp of publicity had of course been fully given by her
confinement and departure, and the change itself was now ushered
in by our nonobservance of the regular custom of the schoolroom.
He had already disappeared when, on my way down, I pushed
open his door, and I learned below that he had breakfasted--
in the presence of a couple of the maids--with Mrs. Grose
and his sister. He had then gone out, as he said, for a stroll;
than which nothing, I reflected, could better have expressed
his frank view of the abrupt transformation of my office.
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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 A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: And often kiss'd, and often 'gan to tear;
Cried, 'O false blood, thou register of lies,
What unapproved witness dost thou bear!
Ink would have seem'd more black and damned here!'
This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,
Big discontent so breaking their contents.
A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh,
Sometime a blusterer, that the ruffle knew
Of court, of city, and had let go by
The swiftest hours, observed as they flew,
Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew;
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