| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: mission. For the last hundred years the daughters of the family had
married nobles belonging to the provinces; consequently, this family
had thrown out so many suckers throughout the duchy as to appear on
nearly all the genealogical trees. No bourgeois family had ever seemed
so like nobility.
The house in which Mademoiselle Cormon lived, build in Henri IV.'s
time, by Pierre Cormon, the steward of the last Duc d'Alencon, had
always belonged to the family; and among the old maid's visible
possessions this one was particularly stimulating to the covetous
desires of the two old lovers. Yet, far from producing revenue, the
house was a cause of expense. But it is so rare to find in the very
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from I Have A Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr.: But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on
the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the
process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of
wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom
by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity
and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to
degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise
to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul
force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro
community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for
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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 The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: she fetched a deep sigh.
"Our Rita, too, will end by coming to her sister."
The name for which I had been waiting deprived me of speech for the
moment. The poor mad sinner had rushed off to some of her
wickednesses in Paris. Did I know? No? How could she tell
whether I did know or not? Well! I had hardly left the house, so
to speak, when Rita was down with her maid behaving as if the house
did really still belong to her. . .
"What time was it?" I managed to ask. And with the words my life
itself was being forced out through my lips. But Therese, not
noticing anything strange about me, said it was something like
The Arrow of Gold |
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 Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: "Shall we not?" asked the King, impudently. "You will see! Our
powers are vastly superior to those of mortals, and fully as great as
those of immortals."
"It is your conceit that misleads you!" said Ak, sternly. "You are a
transient race, passing from life into nothingness. We, who live
forever, pity but despise you. On earth you are scorned by all, and
in Heaven you have no place! Even the mortals, after their earth
life, enter another existence for all time, and so are your superiors.
How then dare you, who are neither mortal nor immortal, refuse to
obey my wish?"
The Awgwas sprang to their feet with menacing gestures, but their King
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
