| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: better than Tom's?" said Mr. Shelby.
"Why, yes, sir, I may say so. You see, when I any ways
can, I takes a leetle care about the onpleasant parts, like selling
young uns and that,--get the gals out of the way--out of sight, out
of mind, you know,--and when it's clean done, and can't be helped,
they naturally gets used to it. 'Tan't, you know, as if it was
white folks, that's brought,up in the way of 'spectin' to keep
their children and wives, and all that. Niggers, you know, that's
fetched up properly, ha'n't no kind of 'spectations of no kind; so
all these things comes easier."
"I'm afraid mine are not properly brought up, then," said
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: child plays all day. The idea was the discovery of a North-West
Passage to school. The way to school was plain enough; the game
consisted in finding some way that wasn't plain, starting off ten
minutes early in some almost hopeless direction, and working one's
way round through unaccustomed streets to my goal. And one day I
got entangled among some rather low-class streets on the other side
of Campden Hill, and I began to think that for once the game would
be against me and that I should get to school late. I tried rather
desperately a street that seemed a cul de sac, and found a
passage at the end. I hurried through that with renewed hope. 'I
shall do it yet,' I said, and passed a row of frowsy little shops
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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 Confidence by Henry James: whatever upon her peace of mind. What on earth have I done to offend
you?"
These observations Bernard Longueville was disposed to make,
and one afternoon, the opportunity offering, they rose
to his lips and came very near passing them. In fact,
however, at the last moment, his eloquence took another turn.
It was the custom of the orchestra at the Kursaal to play in
the afternoon, and as the music was often good, a great many people
assembled under the trees, at three o'clock, to listen to it.
This was not, as a regular thing, an hour of re-union
for the little group in which we are especially interested;
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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 King James Bible: the host.
JDG 8:13 And Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle before the
sun was up,
JDG 8:14 And caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and enquired of
him: and he described unto him the princes of Succoth, and the elders
thereof, even threescore and seventeen men.
JDG 8:15 And he came unto the men of Succoth, and said, Behold Zebah
and Zalmunna, with whom ye did upbraid me, saying, Are the hands of
Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thy
men that are weary?
JDG 8:16 And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the
King James Bible |
