| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain: was raging round. Sometimes, he said, we was making
fifty miles an hour, sometimes ninety, sometimes a
hundred; said that with a gale to help he could make
three hundred any time, and said if he wanted the gale,
and wanted it blowing the right direction, he only had
to go up higher or down lower to find it."
"Well, then, it's just as I reckoned. The professor
lied."
"Why?"
"Because if we was going so fast we ought to be
past Illinois, oughtn't we?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu: had been set down. And partly the humour, like the delicate
reserve of her manner, was a mask or a shelter. "I have taught
myself," she writes to me from India, "to be commonplace and like
everybody else superficially. Every one thinks I am so nice and
cheerful, so 'brave,' all the banal things that are so
comfortable to be. My mother knows me only as 'such a tranquil
child, but so strong-willed.' A tranquil child!" And she writes
again, with deeper significance: "I too have learnt the subtle
philosophy of living from moment to moment. Yes, it is a subtle
philosophy, though it appears merely an epicurean doctrine:
'Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die.' I have gone
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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 Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: Cleggett's assistance, had snapped irons upon the president of
the crime trust, hand and foot.
His overthrow was the signal of his men's defeat. As he went
down they hesitated and wavered. The two great negroes, taking
advantage of this hesitation, burst among them with mighty blows
and strange Afro-American oaths, Castor and Pollux in bronze.
With a shout of "Banzai!" Kuroki rushed forward with his kris;
the other defenders added weight and fury to the rally. Before
the irons were on the wrists of Loge his men were routed. They
leaped the rail and made off for their fleet of taxicabs,
flinging away their weapons as they ran.
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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 Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: police, and make them come to me! Justice is on my side, the
whole world is on my side, I have natural rights, and the law
with me. I protest! The country will go to ruin if a father's
rights are trampled under foot. That is easy to see. The whole
world turns on fatherly love; fatherly love is the foundation of
society; it will crumble into ruin when children do not love
their fathers. Oh! if I could only see them, and hear them, no
matter what they said; if I could simply hear their voices, it
would soothe the pain. Delphine! Delphine most of all. But tell
them when they come not to look so coldly at me as they do. Oh!
my friend, my good Monsieur Eugene, you do not know that it is
Father Goriot |
