| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: "Is this lady Matilda, then, so very terrible a damsel?"
said Sir Ralph to brother Michael.
"By no means," said the friar. "She has certainly a high spirit;
but it is the wing of the eagle, without his beak or his claw.
She is as gentle as magnanimous; but it is the gentleness of the
summer wind, which, however lightly it wave the tuft of the pine,
carries with it the intimation of a power, that, if roused
to its extremity, could make it bend to the dust."
"From the warmth of your panegyric, ghostly father," said the knight,
"I should almost suspect you were in love with the damsel."
"So I am," said the friar, "and I care not who knows it;
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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 A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: would have had the same import or have been gone about in the same
way. Germany was bound to Tamasese. No honest man would dream of
blaming Knappe because he sought to redeem his country's word. The
path he chose was doubtless that of honour, so far as honour was
still left. But it proved to be the road to ruin.
Fritze, ranking German officer, is understood to have opposed the
measure. His attitude earned him at the time unpopularity among
his country-people on the spot, and should now redound to his
credit. It is to be hoped he extended his opposition to some of
the details. If it were possible to disarm Mataafa at all, it must
be done rather by prestige than force. A party of blue-jackets
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