| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: he realized - as he might have realized before had he been shrewder -
that Richard's mood was one that made him ripe for any villainy. He
thought that he was much in error if a treachery existed so black that
Richard would quail before it, if it but afforded him the means of
ridding himself and the world of Mr. Wilding. He was considering how
best to approach the subject, when it happened that one night when
Richard sat at play with him in his own lodging, the boy grew talkative
through excess of wine. It happened naturally enough that Richard
sought an ally in Blake, just as Blake sought an ally in Richard.
Indeed, their fortunes - so far as Ruth was concerned - were bound
up together. The baronet saw that Richard, half-fuddled, was ripe for
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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 Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it.
These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew
that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen,
perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the
insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed
no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration
which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause
of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself
should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less
fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray
Second Inaugural Address |
