| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain: was all up. Then we went down, being in a sweat to know
what the letter said.
She was setting there in a brown study, with it laying
in her lap. We set down, and she says:
"They're in considerable trouble down there, and they think
you and Huck'll be a kind of diversion for them--'comfort,'
they say. Much of that they'll get out of you and Huck Finn,
I reckon. There's a neighbor named Brace Dunlap that's been
wanting to marry their Benny for three months, and at last
they told him point blank and once for all, he COULDN'T;
so he has soured on them, and they're worried about it.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: Where I must take like seat unto my fortune,
And to my humble seat conform myself.
KING LEWIS.
Why, say, fair queen, whence springs this deep
despair?
QUEEN MARGARET.
From such a cause as fills mine eyes with tears
And stops my tongue, while heart is drown'd in cares.
KING LEWIS.
Whate'er it be, be thou still like thyself,
And sit thee by our side; yield not thy neck
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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 Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: the next day and the day after that, the less juice it expended in the
bouillon, the more substantial were the subsequent dinners. The beef,
little cooked, was always taken away at the following speech from
Brigitte, uttered as soon as Thuillier put his knife into it:--
"I think it is rather tough; send it away, Thuillier, nobody will eat
it; we have other things."
The soup was, in fact, flanked by four viands mounted on old hot-water
chafing-dishes, with the plating worn off. At this particular dinner
(afterwards called that of the candidacy) the first course consisted
of a pair of ducks with olives, opposite to which was a large pie with
forcemeat balls, while a dish of eels "a la tartare" corresponded in
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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 Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: which allows men to act in the name of nations without consulting
them, and to claim their gratitude whilst their rights are
spurned. A republican government, moreover, is the only one
which claims the right of doing whatever it chooses, and
despising what men have hitherto respected, from the highest
moral obligations to the vulgar rules of common-sense. It had
been supposed, until our time, that despotism was odious, under
whatever form it appeared. But it is a discovery of modern days
that there are such things as legitimate tyranny and holy
injustice, provided they are exercised in the name of the people.
The ideas which the Americans have adopted respecting the
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