| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: with brevity.
Her accent recalled to Thorpe the fact that there
had been something disagreeable in their conversation,
and the thought of it was unpleasant to him.
"Why, I didn't know you had a new man coming," he said,
turning to her with an overture of smiling interest.
"Yes," she answered, and then, as if weighing the proffered
propitiation and rejecting it, turned slowly and went
into the house.
The trap apparently ended its course at some back
entrance: he did not see it again. He strolled indoors,
The Market-Place |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: general commanding the Lacedaemonian foreign brigade, and by
Timomachus the Athenian, under cover of night seized and occupied with
two thousand heavy infantry the rising ground above Cenchreae, taking
with him provisions for seven days. Within the interval the Thebans
arrived and surmounted the pass of Oneion; whereupon the allied troops
with Epaminondas at their head, advanced into Achaea. The result of
the campaign was that the better classes of Achaea gave in their
adhesion to him; and on his personal authority Epaminondas insisted
that there should be no driving of the aristocrats into exile, nor any
modification of the constitution. He was content to take a pledge of
fealty from the Achaeans to this effect: "Verily and indeed we will be
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: I will be her ghostly esquire."
Robin insisted that this should not be, for number would
only expose them to greater risk of detection. The friar,
after some debate, reluctantly acquiesced.
While they were discussing these matters, they heard the distant
sound of horses' feet.
"Go," said Robin to Little John, "and invite yonder horseman to dinner."
Little John bounded away, and soon came before a young man, who was riding
in a melancholy manner, with the bridle hanging loose on the horse's neck,
and his eyes drooping towards the ground.
"Whither go you?" said Little John.
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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 Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: desert, so there, where their fury had not spread, all was a
garden. Afar, at the foot of the mountains, the fugitive herds
were grazing; the cranes, flocking back to the pools, renewed the
strange grace of their gambols; and the great kingfisher, whose
laugh, half in mirth, half in mockery, leads the choir that welcome
the morn--which in Europe is night--alighted bold on the roof of
the cavern, whose floors were still white with the bones of races,
extinct before--so helpless through instincts, so royal through
Soul--rose MAN!
But there, on the ground where the dazzling elixir had wasted its
virtues--there the herbage already had a freshness of verdure
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