| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: Lincoln's admiration years before. Davis had been the child who
began his schooling so near to Lincoln in Kentucky. He had had a
far different career. Good fortune had carried him to West Point,
into the Mexican War, into the cabinet of President Franklin
Pierce, and twice into the Senate. He had had money, high office,
the best education his country could give him--everything, it
seemed, that had been denied to Lincoln. Now the two men were the
chosen heads of two great opposing factions, one bent on
destroying the government that had treated him so kindly; the
other, for whom it had done so little, willing to lay down his
life in its defense.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Tik-Tok, whom I left ticking merrily in the
Land of Oz. But how he came to this lonely
place, and got into that old well, is surely a
mystery."
"If we wind him, perhaps he will tell us,"
suggested Betsy. "Here's the key, hanging to a
hook on his back. What part of him shall I wind up
first?"
"His thoughts, of course," said Polychrome,
"for it requires thought to speak or move
intelligently."
Tik-Tok of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: for her. When all were gathered on the field--high and low,
young and old--and the guards had taken their place, then both
seized their lances and rushed together so savagely that they
both broke their lances and fell to the ground, unable to keep
their saddles. But not being wounded, they quickly get upon
their feet and attack each other without delay. Upon their
resonant helmets they play such a tune with swords that it seems
to those who are looking on that the helmets are on fire and send
forth sparks. And when the swords rebound in air, gleaming
sparks fly off from them as from a smoking piece of iron which
the smith beats upon his anvil after, drawing it from the forge.
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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 Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: Never did passenger in summer's heat
More thirst for drink than she for this good turn. 92
Her help she sees, but help she cannot get;
She bathes in water, yet her fire must burn:
'O! pity,' 'gan she cry, 'flint-hearted boy:
'Tis but a kiss I beg; why art thou coy? 96
'I have been woo'd, as I entreat thee now,
Even by the stern and direful god of war,
Whose sinewy neck in battle ne'er did bow,
Who conquers where he comes m every jar; 100
Yet hath he been my captive and my slave,
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