| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: "She has quite a way with her," he said. "I tried to back out of
bringing the horses over. Said I couldn't charge freight, that the
Apostle was under a yacht license, that I was going around by Savo
and the upper end of Guadalcanar. But it was no use. 'Bother the
charge,' said she. 'You take the horses like a good man, and when
I float the Martha I'll return the service some day.'"
"And 'bother your orders,' said she to me," Oleson cried. "'I'm
your boss now,' said she, 'and you take your orders from me.'
'Look at that load of ivory nuts,' I said. 'Bother them,' said
she; 'I'm playin' for something bigger than ivory nuts. We'll dump
them overside as soon as we get under way.'"
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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 Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: time Balthazar's condition grew rapidly worse. The man formerly so
wrapped up in his domestic happiness, who played for hours with his
children on the parlor carpet or round the garden paths, who seemed
able to exist only in the light of his Pepita's dark eyes, did not
even perceive her pregnancy, seldom shared the family life, and even
forgot his own.
The longer Madame Claes postponed inquiring into the cause of his
preoccupation the less she dared to do so. At the very idea, her blood
ran cold and her voice grew faint. At last the thought occurred to her
that she had ceased to please her husband, and then indeed she was
seriously alarmed. That fear now filled her mind, drove her to
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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 Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: And I was on the other track.
"God knows how far I might have gone
Or what there might have been to see;
But my speed had a sudden end,
And here you have the end of me."
The end or not, it may be now
But little farther from the truth
To say those worn satiric eyes
Had something of immortal youth.
He may among the millions here
Be one; or he may, quite as well,
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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 The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: either course. Congress greatly advanced the problem, shortly
after the battle of Bull Run, by passing a law which took away a
master's right to his slave, when, with his consent, such slave
was employed in service or labor hostile to the United States.
On the general question of slavery, the President's mind was
fully made up. He felt that he had no right to interfere with
slavery where slavery was lawful, just because he himself did not
happen to like it; for he had sworn to do all in his power to
"preserve, protect and defend" the government and its laws, and
slavery was lawful in the southern States. When freeing the
slaves should become necessary in order to preserve the
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