| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: world, died on the Sandwich Islands and was devoured by savages,
of whom not a single fragment was ever recovered."
Electricity seems destined to play a most important part in the
arts and industries. The question of its economical application to
some purposes is still unsettled, but experiment has already proved
that it will propel a street car better than a gas jet and give more
light than a horse.
ELEGY, n. A composition in verse, in which, without employing any of
the methods of humor, the writer aims to produce in the reader's mind
the dampest kind of dejection. The most famous English example begins
somewhat like this:
The Devil's Dictionary |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: and less strongly from the Worsley's door; now it seemed to shrink
away in fetters. Her eyes filled with vaguely resentful tears,
which sprang, if she could have traced them, from the fact that the
man she loved was loyal to his own mistake, and the formless
premonition that he might continue to be. She contorted her lip to
keep her emotion back, and deliberately turned away from a matter in
which she was not mistress, and which contained ugly possibilities
of buffeting. She would wait a little, and though consideration for
Violet Prendergast had nothing to do with it, she would not tell him
tonight.
'I am sorry,' she said; and, after a moment, 'Did I tell you that I
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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 Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu: Incarnate legends of your reign.
O Queens, in vain old Fate decreed
Your flower-like bodies to the tomb;
Death is in truth the vital seed
Of your imperishable bloom
Each new-born year the bulbuls sing
Their songs of your renascent loves;
Your beauty wakens with the spring
To kindle these pomegranate groves.
TO A BUDDHA SEATED ON A LOTUS
Lord Buddha, on thy Lotus-throne,
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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 Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: swallowed with suicidal intent as if administered with murderous
design."
A pause followed which neither man seemed anxious to break, then
Kent turned to the banker, and the latter noticed the haggard
lines in his face.
"Listen to me, Mr. Clymer," he began. "My instinct tells me that
Jimmie Turnbull never forged that letter or stole McIntyre's
securities, but I admit that everything points to his guilt,
even his death."
"How so?"
"Because the theft of the securities supplies a motive for his
The Red Seal |
