| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: again I wish to place myself on record as opposed to
a coat. It is a useless ornament, assumed but rarely,
and then only as substitute for a handier garment.
Inasmuch as you will be a great deal called on to
handle abrading and sometimes frozen ropes, you
will want a pair of heavy buckskin gauntlets. An
extra pair of stout high-laced boots with small
Hungarian hob-nails will come handy. It is marvelous
how quickly leather wears out in the downhill friction
of granite and shale. I once found the heels of
a new pair of shoes almost ground away by a single
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: respectfully supported the sacrilegious Trompe-la-Mort, while Fil-de-
Soie ran to a warder on guard at the gate leading to the parlor.
"That venerable priest wants to sit down; send out a chair for him,"
said he.
And so Bibi-Lupin's plot had failed.
Trompe-la-Mort, like a Napoleon recognized by his soldiers, had won
the submission and respect of the three felons. Two words had done it.
Your molls and your blunt--your women and your money--epitomizing
every true affection of man. This threat was to the three convicts an
indication of supreme power. The Boss still had their fortune in his
hands. Still omnipotent outside the prison, their Boss had not
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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 The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: whom they call John. I abstained from making Hamlet's remark to
Horatio, and continued.
Not long since, the church-wardens were repairing and beautifying
an old Saxon church in a certain English village, and among other
things thought the doors should be attended to. One of them
particularly, the front-door, looked very badly, crusted, as it
were, and as if it would be all the better for scraping. There
happened to be a microscopist in the village who had heard the old
pirate story, and he took it into his head to examine the crust on
this door. There was no mistake about it; it was a genuine
historical document, of the Ziska drum-head pattern, - a real CUTIS
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
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 Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: "My father created it," answered she, with simplicity.
"Created it! created it!" repeated Giovanni. "What mean you,
Beatrice?"
"He is a man fearfully acquainted with the secrets of Nature,"
replied Beatrice; "and, at the hour when I first drew breath,
this plant sprang from the soil, the offspring of his science, of
his intellect, while I was but his earthly child. Approach it
not!" continued she, observing with terror that Giovanni was
drawing nearer to the shrub. "It has qualities that you little
dream of. But I, dearest Giovanni,--I grew up and blossomed with
the plant and was nourished with its breath. It was my sister,
Mosses From An Old Manse |
