| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: about me. You know him, you are always meeting him, couldn't you say or do
anything for me?" She looked up with her lips white and drawn. "I feel
sometimes as if I were going mad! Oh, it is so terrible to be a woman!"
The woman looked down at her. "Now I hear he likes another woman. I don't
know who she is, but they say she is so clever, and writes. Oh, it is so
terrible, I can't bear it."
The woman leaned her elbow against the mantelpiece, and her face against
her hand. She looked down into the fire. Then she turned and looked at
the younger woman. "Yes," she said, "it is a very terrible thing to be a
woman." She was silent. She said with some difficulty: "Are you sure you
love him? Are you sure it is not only the feeling a young girl has for an
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: Justice with favour have I always done;
Prayers and tears have mov'd me, gifts could never.
When have I aught exacted at your hands
But to maintain the king, the realm, and you?
Large gifts have I bestow'd on learned clerks,
Because my book preferr'd me to the king;
And seeing ignorance is the curse of God,
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven,
Unless you be possess'd with devilish spirits,
You cannot but forbear to murther me.
This tongue hath parley'd unto foreign kings
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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 Mother by Owen Wister: office. Thus was I left without his buoyant consolation in the face of my
investments."
"Petunias were being adjusted on a four per cent basis; Dutchess and
Columbia Traction was holding its own; I could not complain of
Amalgamated Electric, though it was now lower than when I had bought it,
while had I sold it on that Wednesday in May when Ethel begged me, before
the increased dividend turned out a mistake, I should have made money.
But Philippi Sewers were threatened; Pasteurised Feeders had been numb
since June; Pollyopolis Heat, Light, Power, Paving, Pressing, and Packing
was going to pass its quarterly dividend; and Standard Egg had gone down
from 63 to 7 1/8. My million dollars on paper now was worth in reality
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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 My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: master. Edward was young, and fine looking, and he loved and
courted her. He might have been her husband, in the high sense
just alluded to; but WHO and _what_ was this old master? His
attentions were plainly brutal and selfish, and it was as natural
that Esther should loathe him, as that she should love Edward.
Abhorred and circumvented as he was, old master, having the
power, very easily took revenge. I happened to see this
exhibition of his rage and cruelty toward Esther. The time
selected was singular. It was early in the morning, when all
besides was still, and before any of the family, in the house or
kitchen, had left their beds. I saw but few of the shocking
My Bondage and My Freedom |
