| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Iron Puddler by James J. Davis: of capitalism. Meanwhile their own people are the poorest in the
world, but they do nothing to better their condition. Such men
have minds that never grew up.
When our household was dissolving and we were packing our
baggage for America, I tried to break up the plan by hiding under
the bed. Mother took the feather ticks off the two bedsteads and
bundled them up to take to America. Then she reached under the
bedstead and pulled me out by the heels. She sold the bedsteads
to a neighbor. And so our household ended in Wales and we were on
our way to establish a new one in a far country.
As I said before, the feather beds were mother's measure of
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: clear insight into mental processes, and read each other's minds as
two lovers read in either soul. So when we came together, the Countess
and I, I understood at once the reason of her antipathy for me,
disguised though it was by the most gracious forms of politeness and
civility. I had been forced to be her confidant, and a woman cannot
but hate the man before whom she is compelled to blush. And she on her
side knew that if I was the man in whom her husband placed confidence,
that husband had not as yet given up his fortune.
"I will spare you the conversation, but it abides in my memory as one
of the most dangerous encounters in my career. Nature had bestowed on
her all the qualities which, combined, are irresistibly fascinating;
Gobseck |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: strain, and I beg the reader will compare their manner with mine:
And here I make bold to tell the world, that I lay the whole
credit of my art upon the truth of these predictions; and I will
be content, that Partridge, and the rest of his clan, may hoot me
for a cheat and impostor, if I fail in any singular particular of
moment. I believe, any man who reads this paper, will look upon
me to be at least a person of as much honesty and understanding,
as a common maker of almanacks. I do not lurk in the dark; I am
not wholly unknown in the world; I have set my name at length, to
be a mark of infamy to mankind, if they shall find I deceive
them.
|
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 Contrast by Royall Tyler: as melancholy as if I had been at church; and heaven
knows, though I never prayed to go there but on one
occasion, yet I would have exchanged his conversa-
tion for a psalm and a sermon. Church is rather
melancholy, to be sure; but then I can ogle the beaux,
and be regaled with "here endeth the first lesson," but
his brotherly here, you would think had no end. You
captivate him! Why, my dear, he would as soon fall
in love with a box of Italian flowers. There is Maria,
now, if she were not engaged, she might do something.
Oh! how I should like to see that pair of pensorosos
|
