| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: almost a marriage. Tullia has always been very careful to say nothing
of her family; we have a vague idea that she comes from Nanterre. One
of her uncles, formerly a simple bricklayer or carpenter, is now, it
is said, a very rich contractor, thanks to her influence and generous
loans. This fact leaked out through du Bruel. He happened to say that
Tullia would inherit a fine fortune sooner or later. The contractor
was a bachelor; he had a weakness for the niece to whom he is
indebted.
" 'He is not clever enough to be ungrateful,' said she.
"In 1829 Tullia retired from the stage of her own accord. At the age
of thirty she saw that she was growing somewhat stouter, and she had
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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 Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: point taken and the wisdom of Mr. Lincoln's course.
"He that is slow to anger," says the proverb, "is better than the
mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a
city." Great as was his self-control in other matters, nowhere
did Mr. Lincoln's slowness to anger and nobility of spirit show
itself more than in his dealings with the generals of the Civil
War. He had been elected President. Congress had given him power
far exceeding that which any President had ever exercised before.
As President he was also Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy
of the United States. By proclamation he could call forth great
armies and he could order those armies to go wherever he chose to
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