| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: made of late years in all branches of obstetrical knowledge, but
particularly in that one single point of the safe and expeditious
extraction of the foetus,--which has received such lights, that, for my
part (holding up his hand) I declare I wonder how the world has--I wish,
quoth my uncle Toby, you had seen what prodigious armies we had in
Flanders.
Chapter 1.XLIV.
I have dropped the curtain over this scene for a minute,--to remind you of
one thing,--and to inform you of another.
What I have to inform you, comes, I own, a little out of its due course;--
for it should have been told a hundred and fifty pages ago, but that I
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: "This must be well matured," replied the soldier.
"Oh! it's quite ripe," said the advocate. "The cousin gone to the
devil, the heritage would then be between us two."
"I'm quite agreeable," said the fighter, "but we must stick as close
together as the two legs of the same body, for if you are fine as
silk, I as strong as steel, and daggers are always as good as traps--
you hear that, my good brother."
"Yes," said the advocate, "the cause is heard--now shall it be the
thread or the iron?"
"Eh? ventre de Dieu! is it then a king that we are going to settle?
For a simple numskull of a shepherd are so many words necessary? Come!
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: had had reason in those days to know the honorable disposition of his
cashier, who then occupied a high position. Reverses of fortune had
befallen the major, and the banker out of regard for him paid him five
hundred francs a month. The soldier had become a cashier in the year
1813, after his recovery from a wound received at Studzianka during
the Retreat from Moscow, followed by six months of enforced idleness
at Strasbourg, whither several officers had been transported by order
of the Emperor, that they might receive skilled attention. This
particular officer, Castanier by name, retired with the honorary grade
of colonel, and a pension of two thousand four hundred francs.
In ten years' time the cashier had completely effaced the soldier, and
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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 The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: --I don't call to mind anything else. Me and Buck knew more about
selling corn salve than we did about Wall Street, but even we could
see how the Golconda Gold Bond Investment Company was making money.
You take in money and pay back ten per cent. of it; it's plain enough
that you make a clean, legitimate profit of 90 per cent., less
expenses, as long as the fish bite.
Atterbury wanted to be president and treasurer too, but Buck winks an
eye at him and says: "You was to furnish the brains. Do you call it
good brain work when you propose to take in money at the door, too?
Think again. I hereby nominate myself treasurer ad valorem, sine die,
and by acclamation. I chip in that much brain work free. Me and
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