| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: pleased! Fifteen thousand crowns, perhaps twenty
thousand crowns, and I to leave at six in the morning,
whether I would or no! I might leave for Spain with the
jewels in my pocket. Why not?
I confess I was tempted. And indeed the gems were so
fine that I doubt not some indifferently honest men
would have sold salvation for them. But--a Berault his
honour? No. I was tempted, I say; but not for long.
Thank God, a man may be reduced to living by the
fortunes of the dice, and may even be called by a woman
'spy' and 'coward,' without becoming a thief! 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 The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: tonia. We're all getting pretty cold around here," Meco
shouted from a distance.
The crowd broke into peals of laughter. Pancracio and
Manteca vied with each other in calling forth oaths and
obscenity.
XX
Villa is coming!"
The news spread like lightning. Villa--the magic word!
The Great Man, the salient profile, the unconquerable
warrior who, even at a distance, exerts the fascination of
a reptile, a boa constrictor.
The Underdogs |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: professing to be a pilot when he is not, or any physician or general, or
any one else pretending to know matters of which he is ignorant, will
deceive or elude us; our health will be improved; our safety at sea, and
also in battle, will be assured; our coats and shoes, and all other
instruments and implements will be skilfully made, because the workmen will
be good and true. Aye, and if you please, you may suppose that prophecy,
which is the knowledge of the future, will be under the control of wisdom,
and that she will deter deceivers and set up the true prophets in their
place as the revealers of the future. Now I quite agree that mankind, thus
provided, would live and act according to knowledge, for wisdom would watch
and prevent ignorance from intruding on us. But whether by acting
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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 Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Bereft of her with whom his life
Was harmony without a flaw,
He took no other for a wife,
Nor sighed for any that he saw;
And if he doubted his two sons,
And heirs, Alexis and Evander,
He might have been as doubtful once
Of Robert Burns and Alexander.
Alexis, in his early youth,
Began to steal -- from old and young.
Likewise Evander, and the truth
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