| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: the average of man. Seated in islands very rich in food, the
idleness of the many idle would scarce matter; and the provinces
might continue to bestow their names among rival pretenders, and
fall into war and enjoy that a while, and drop into peace and enjoy
that, in a manner highly to be envied. But the condition - that
they should be let alone - is now no longer possible. More than a
hundred years ago, and following closely on the heels of Cook, an
irregular invasion of adventurers began to swarm about the isles of
the Pacific. The seven sleepers of Polynesia stand, still but half
aroused, in the midst of the century of competition. And the
island races, comparable to a shopful of crockery launched upon the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: in a momentary reverie, and returning to the consciousness of
actual life, in almost as brief an interval as the down-sinking
flame of the hearth should quiver again up the chimney. On
recognizing Matthew Maule, she assumed an air of somewhat cold
but gentle dignity, the rather, as there was a certain peculiar
smile on the carpenter's visage that stirred the native pride of
the fair Alice. So ended, for that time, the quest for the lost
title-deed of the Pyncheon territory at the Eastward; nor, though
often subsequently renewed, has it ever yet befallen a Pyncheon
to set his eye upon that parchment.
But, alas for the beautiful, the gentle, yet too haughty Alice!
House of Seven Gables |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from U. S. Project Trinity Report by Carl Maag and Steve Rohrer: ground zero area. Most of these parties entered in the month after
shot-day. These were the scientists and technicians conducting
experiments or retrieving data. By the beginning of September, most
of those who entered the ground zero area were invited guests (1).
Also during the period 20 July through 21 November, at least 71
soldiers were at the TRINITY test site. Twenty-five of these men were
support personnel who never went within 460 meters of ground zero.
The remaining 46 men were technical personnel, laborers who erected
the 460-meter fence, or military policemen who served as guides.
Eleven of these men, probably members of the fence detail, spent
several days at about 460 meters from ground zero. Working three to
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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 Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: was ordered to spread abroad that challenge in luxury, so that it
might reach the other. Tullia was very fond of this gift from the Duc
de Rhetore; but one day, five years after her marriage, she played
with her cat to such purpose that the coverlet--furbelows, flounces,
and all--was torn to shreds, and replaced by a sensible quilt, a quilt
that was a quilt, and not a symptom of the peculiar form of insanity
which drives these women to make up by an insensate luxury for the
childish days when they lived on raw apples, to quote the expression
of a journalist. The day when the bed-spread was torn to tatters
marked a new epoch in her married life.
"Cursy was remarkable for his ferocious industry. Nobody suspects the
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