| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: widower.'
"He always came arrayed in fine linen, a cornflower blue coat, a
paduasoy waistcoat, black trousers, and black ribbon bows on the
double soled shoes that creaked like an abbe's; he always held a
fourteen franc silk hat in his hand.
" 'I am old and I have no children,' he took occasion to confide to
the young lady some few days after Cerizet's visit to Maxime. 'I hold
my relations in horror. They are peasants born to work in the fields.
Just imagine it, I came up from the country with six francs in my
pocket, and made my fortune here. I am not proud. A pretty woman is my
equal. Now would it not be nicer to be Mme. Croizeau for some years to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: Inaugural Address of President Kennedy, officially on
November 22, 1993, on the day of the 30th anniversary
of his assassination.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, given November 19, 1863
on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA
#STARTMARK#
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth
upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether
that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . .
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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 Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: we must not attempt to join MR. TALLER in his simple division
of students into LAW, DIVINITY, and MEDICAL. Nowadays the
Faculties may shake hands over their follies; and, like Mrs.
Frail and Mrs. Foresight (in LOVE FOR LOVE) they may stand in
the doors of opposite class-rooms, crying: 'Sister, Sister -
Sister everyway!' A few restrictions, indeed, remain to
influence the followers of individual branches of study. The
Divinity, for example, must be an avowed believer; and as
this, in the present day, is unhappily considered by many as
a confession of weakness, he is fain to choose one of two
ways of gilding the distasteful orthodox bolus. Some swallow
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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 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: your resolution, since it begins to bear fruit. Go on, dear,
patiently and bravely, and always believe that no one sympathizes
more tenderly with you than your loving...
Mother
"That does me good! That's worth millions of money and
pecks of praise. Oh, Marmee, I do try! I will keep on trying,
and not get tired, since I have you to help me."
Laying her head on her arms, Jo wet her little romance with
a few happy tears. for she had thought that no one saw and
appreciated her efforts to be good, and this assurance was doubly
precious, doubly encouraging, because unexpected and from the
Little Women |
