| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . .
can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place
for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . .
we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power
to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
|
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 Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: to ruin all! To-morrow, you will be once more about your pleasures;
you will give us leave once more to think and work for you; and
again you will come back, and again you will thwart what you had not
the industry or knowledge to conceive. O! it is intolerable. Be
modest, sir. Do not presume upon the rank you cannot worthily
uphold. I would not issue my commands with so much gusto - it is
from no merit in yourself they are obeyed. What are you? What have
you to do in this grave council? Go,' she cried, 'go among your
equals? The very people in the streets mock at you for a prince.'
At this surprising outburst the whole council sat aghast.
'Madam,' said the Baron, alarmed out of his caution, 'command
|