| 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: all my life long, like an ungracious duchess, as I call'd her, with so many
small evils: surely, if I have any cause to be angry with her, 'tis that
she has not sent me great ones--a score of good cursed, bouncing losses,
would have been as good as a pension to me.
--One of a hundred a year, or so, is all I wish--I would not be at the
plague of paying land-tax for a larger.
Chapter 4.XI.
To those who call vexations, Vexations, as knowing what they are, there
could not be a greater, than to be the best part of a day at Lyons, the
most opulent and flourishing city in France, enriched with the most
fragments of antiquity--and not be able to see it. To be withheld upon any
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: what has been said, the coast-line of every mainland presents, either
some jutting promontory, or adjacent island, or narrow strait of some
sort, so that those who are masters of the sea can come to moorings at
one of these points and wreak vengeance[15] on the inhabitants of the
mainland.
[11] Or, "they have a practical monopoly."
[12] Or, "how is it to dispose of the product?"
[13] Or, "coppert."
[14] Reading {ekei}. For this corrupt passage see L. Dindorf, ad.
loc.; also Boeckh, "P. E. A." I. ix. p. 55. Perhaps (as my friend
Mr. J. R. Mozley suggests) the simplest supposition is to suppose
|
| 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: not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute.
The fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution, and the law for the
suppression of the foreign slave-trade, are each as well enforced,
perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the moral
sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself.
The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation
in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think,
cannot be perfectly cured; and it would be worse in both cases
AFTER the separation of the sections than BEFORE. The foreign
slave-trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived,
without restriction, in one section, while fugitive slaves,
|
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 Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: A man so hideous to see.
The arrow-drift o'ertook me, girl,
A fine-ground arrow in the whirl
Went through me, and I feel the dart
Sits, lovely lass, too near my heart."
The girl said, "Let me see thy wound." Then Thormod sat down, and
the girl saw his wounds, and that which was in his side, and saw
that there was a piece of iron in it; but could not tell where it
had gone. In a stone pot she had leeks and other herbs, and boiled
them, and gave the wounded man of it to eat. But Thormod said,
"Take it away; I have no appetite now for my broth." Then she took
|
