| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: church and a French church.
Public Edifices are -
1. Bay Hall, an ancient society kept up for ascertaining the
manufacture of bays, which are, or ought to be, all brought to this
hall to be viewed and sealed according to their goodness by the
masters; and to this practice has been owing the great reputation
of the Colchester bays in foreign markets, where to open the side
of a bale and show the seal has been enough to give the buyer a
character of the value of the goods without any further search; and
so far as they abate the integrity and exactness of their method,
which I am told of late is much omitted; I say, so far, 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 Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: But coming back he learns it, and the loss
So pains him that he sickens nigh to death;
So fared it with Geraint, who being pricked
In combat with the follower of Limours,
Bled underneath his armour secretly,
And so rode on, nor told his gentle wife
What ailed him, hardly knowing it himself,
Till his eye darkened and his helmet wagged;
And at a sudden swerving of the road,
Though happily down on a bank of grass,
The Prince, without a word, from his horse fell.
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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 A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: M Company of the 23rd regiment of the 2nd Division? It lost in one day at
Chateau-Thierry all its men but seven. And did the general forget the 3rd
Division between Chateau-Thierry and Dormans? Don't be like that
brigadier general, and don't be like that American officer returning on
the Lapland who told the British at his table he was glad to get home
after cleaning up the mess which the British had made. Resemble as little
as possible our present Secretary of the Navy. Avoid boasting. Our
contribution to victory was quite enough without boasting. The
head-master of one of our great schools has put it thus to his schoolboys
who fought: Some people had to raise a hundred dollars. After struggling
for years they could only raise seventy-five. Then a man came along and
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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 Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson: And here is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart runaway in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill, and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone forever!
XXXVIII
Winter-time
Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.
A Child's Garden of Verses |
