| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: adopts one of the candidates thus selected as the only
available one, thus proving that he is himself available for
any purposes of the demagogue. His vote is of no more worth
than that of any unprincipled foreigner or hireling native,
who may have been bought. O for a man who is a man, and,
and my neighbor says, has a bone is his back which you
cannot pass your hand through! Our statistics are at fault:
the population has been returned too large. How many men
are there to a square thousand miles in the country?
Hardly one. Does not America offer any inducement for men
to settle here? The American has dwindled into an Odd
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tom Grogan by F. Hopkinson Smith: clo'es."
XIII
MR. QUIGG DRAWS A PLAN
McGaw had watched the fire from his upper window with mingled joy
and fear--joy that Tom's property was on fire, and fear that it
would be put out before she would be ruined. He had been waiting
all the evening for Crimmins, who had failed to arrive. Billy had
not been at home since supper, so he could get no details as to
the amount of the damage from that source. In this emergency he
sent next morning for Quigg to make a reconnaissance in the
vicinity of the enemy's camp, ascertain how badly Tom had been
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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 Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: Banded Epeira's. It is an obtuse conoid, closed with a star-shaped
disk. It is made of a stouter and especially a thicker material
than the Banded Epeira's balloon, for which reason a spontaneous
rupture becomes more necessary than ever.
This rupture is effected at the sides of the bag, not far from the
edge of the lid. Like the ripping of the balloon, it requires the
rough aid of the heat of July. Its mechanism also seems to work by
the expansion of the heated air, for we again see a partial
emission of the silky floss that fills the pouch.
The exit of the family is performed in a single group and, this
time, before the moult, perhaps for lack of the space necessary for
The Life of the Spider |
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 Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: marbles all day in the West Park, and going home at night to tell his
landlady how he had been seeking for a job. I believe this kind of
existence was not unpleasant to Alick himself, and he might have long
continued to enjoy idleness and a life on tick; but he had a comrade,
let us call him Brown, who grew restive. This fellow was continually
threatening to slip his cable for the States, and at last, one
Wednesday, Glasgow was left widowed of her Brown. Some months
afterwards, Alick met another old chum in Sauchiehall Street.
'By the bye, Alick,' said he, 'I met a gentleman in New York who was
asking for you.'
'Who was that?' asked Alick.
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