| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: 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
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . .
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: XVII
PETER NIKOLAEVICH SVENTIZKY'S views of the
peasantry had now changed for the worse, and the
peasants had an equally bad opinion of him. In
the course of a single year they felled twenty-seven
oaks in his forest, and burnt a barn which had not
been insured. Peter Nikolaevich came to the con-
clusion that there was no getting on with the
people around him.
At that very time the landowner, Liventsov,
was trying to find a manager for his estate, and
The Forged Coupon |
