| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: And above all things, a prince ought to live amongst his people in
such a way that no unexpected circumstances, whether of good or evil,
shall make him change; because if the necessity for this comes in
troubled times, you are too late for harsh measures; and mild ones
will not help you, for they will be considered as forced from you, and
no one will be under any obligation to you for them.
CHAPTER IX
CONCERNING A CIVIL PRINCIPALITY
But coming to the other point--where a leading citizen becomes the
prince of his country, not by wickedness or any intolerable violence,
but by the favour of his fellow citizens--this may be called a civil
The Prince |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: to whom I have offered millions."
"Instead of millions, Fouquet, you should have offered me a
true, only and boundless love: I might have accepted that.
So you see, still, everything is to be bought, if not in one
way, by another."
"So, Colbert, in your opinion, is in a fair way of
bargaining for my place of superintendent. Make yourself
easy on that head, my dear marquise; he is not yet rich
enough to purchase it."
"But if he should rob you of it?"
"Ah! that is another thing. Unfortunately, before he can
Ten Years Later |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: But an hour you bear your trial, sin and suffer, bleed and die;
But an hour you toil and combat here in day's inspiring eye.
See the feet of your deliverer; lo, the hour of freedom nigh.
I NOW, O FRIEND, WHOM NOISELESSLY THE SNOWS
I NOW, O friend, whom noiselessly the snows
Settle around, and whose small chamber grows
Dusk as the sloping window takes its load:
* * * * *
The kindly hill, as to complete our hap,
Has ta'en us in the shelter of her lap;
Well sheltered in our slender grove of trees
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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 Europeans by Henry James: "Ah, the song will never be done!" exclaimed the young man, laughing.
"Don't you think her handsome?"
Gertrude had been disappointed in the beauty of the
Baroness Munster; she had expected her, for mysterious reasons,
to resemble a very pretty portrait of the Empress Josephine,
of which there hung an engraving in one of the parlors,
and which the younger Miss Wentworth had always greatly admired.
But the Baroness was not at all like that--not at all.
Though different, however, she was very wonderful, and Gertrude
felt herself most suggestively corrected. It was strange,
nevertheless, that Felix should speak in that positive way
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