| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Enoch Arden, &c. by Alfred Tennyson: Baby too shall fly away.
`She sleeps: let us too, let all evil, sleep.
He also sleeps--another sleep than ours.
He can do no more wrong: forgive him, dear,
And I shall sleep the sounder!'
Then the man,
`His deeds yet live, the worst is yet to come.
Yet let your sleep for this one night be sound:
I do forgive him!'
`Thanks, my love,' she said,
`Your own will be the sweeter,' and they slept.
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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 Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: that no other man of strong nature with a great following of his
own should be there to dispute his authority. Lincoln did the
very opposite. He had a sincere belief in public opinion, and a
deep respect for the popular will. In this case he felt that no
men represented that popular will so truly as those whose names
had been considered by the Republican National Convention in its
choice of a candidate for President. So, instead of gathering
about him his friends, he selected his most powerful rivals in
the Republican party. William H. Seward, of New York, was to be
his Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, his Secretary
of the Treasury; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, his Secretary of
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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 Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: his miscarriage, and how he had done the contrary of all that he
intended, he stood stupefied. A fiasco so complete and sweeping was
laughable, even to himself; and he laughed aloud in his wrath. Upon
this mood there followed the sharpest violence of remorse; and to
that again, as he recalled his provocation, anger succeeded afresh.
So he was tossed in spirit; now bewailing his inconsequence and lack
of temper, now flaming up in white-hot indignation and a noble pity
for himself.
He paced his apartment like a leopard. There was danger in Otto,
for a flash. Like a pistol, he could kill at one moment, and the
next he might he kicked aside. But just then, as he walked the long
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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 Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: into our boat.' I lifted her in my arms. She panted. Her heart was
beating against my breast. I said, 'I take you from those people. You
came to the cry of my heart, but my arms take you into my boat against
the will of the great!' 'It is right,' said my brother. 'We are men
who take what we want and can hold it against many. We should have
taken her in daylight.' I said, 'Let us be off'; for since she was in
my boat I began to think of our Ruler's many men. 'Yes. Let us be
off,' said my brother. 'We are cast out and this boat is our country
now--and the sea is our refuge.' He lingered with his foot on the
shore, and I entreated him to hasten, for I remembered the strokes of
her heart against my breast and thought that two men cannot withstand
Tales of Unrest |
