| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry: and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they
are wisest. They are the magi.
End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of THE GIFT OF THE MAGI.
The Gift of the Magi |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at
once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated
again. Action from principle -- the perception and the performance
of right -- changes things and relations; it is essentially
revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was.
It not only divides states and churches, it divides families; ay, it
divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the
divine.
Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we
endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or
shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a
Walden |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: mellow evening sky, her conversation betrayed not a trace of the
pride that a victorious fisherman would have shown. On the
contrary, she insisted that angling was an affair of chance--which
was consoling, though I knew it was not altogether true--and that
the smaller fish were just as pleasant to catch and better to eat,
after all. For a generous rival, commend me to a woman. And if I
must compete, let it be with one who has the grace to dissolve the
bitter of defeat in the honey of a mutual self-congratulation.
We had a garden, and our favourite path through it was the portage
leading around the falls. We travelled it very frequently, making
an excuse of idle errands to the steamboat-landing on the lake, and
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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 Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: your brightness, your helpfulness to all of us, and in particular
those one or two really adequate and noble papers which you have
been privileged to write during these last years. - With the
heartiest and kindest good-will, I remain, yours ever,
R. L. S.
Letter: TO LIEUTENANT EELES
VAILIMA, SAMOA, NOVEMBER 24, 1894.
MY DEAR EELES, - The hand, as you will perceive (and also the
spelling!), is Teuila's, but the scrannel voice is what remains of
Tusitala's. First of all, for business. When you go to London you
are to charter a hansom cab and proceed to the Museum. It is
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