| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Macbeth by William Shakespeare: As Honor, Loue, Obedience, Troopes of Friends,
I must not looke to haue: but in their steed,
Curses, not lowd but deepe, Mouth-honor, breath
Which the poore heart would faine deny, and dare not.
Seyton?
Enter Seyton.
Sey. What's your gracious pleasure?
Macb. What Newes more?
Sey. All is confirm'd my Lord, which was reported
Macb. Ile fight, till from my bones, my flesh be hackt.
Giue me my Armor
Macbeth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Roads of Destiny by O. Henry: advertisement. The boss hired him to stand on the stairs for a kind of
scenery to show there was something doing in the has-been line
upstairs. What did you call him--a what kind of beer?"
"A halberdier," said I. "That was an ancient man-at-arms of many
hundred years ago."
"Some mistake," said Eighteen. "This one wasn't that old. He wasn't
over twenty-three or four.
"It was the boss's idea, rigging a man up in an ante-bellum suit of
tinware and standing him on the landing of the slosh. He bought the
goods at a Fourth Avenue antique store, and hung a sign-out: 'Able-
bodied hal--halberdier wanted. Costume furnished.'
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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 Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "Who else?" He looked over his glasses at me with the air of a man
whose mental attitude is unassailable. "Well, listen to this," I
said.
Then I told him at length of my encounter with Bronson in the
restaurant, of the bargain proposed by Mrs. Conway, and finally of
McKnight's new theory. But, although he was impressed, he was far
from convinced.
"It's a very vivid piece of imagination," he said drily; "but while
it fits the evidence as far as it goes, it doesn't go far enough.
How about the stains in lower seven, the dirk, and the wallet?
Haven't we even got motive in that telegram from Bronson?"
The Man in Lower Ten |
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 Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: little puppies out, and Mabel and Tattine took turns in appropriating them,
while Betsy eyed them proudly but withal a little anxiously. And they were
dear; as prettily marked as their beautiful grandmother Tadjie, and too
cunning for words.
"You have made us a great deal of trouble, Betsy," said Tattine, "but they are
such beauties we forgive you," whereat Betsy looked up so affectionately that
Tattine added, "and perhaps some day I'll forgive you about that rabbit, since
Mamma says it's natural for you to hunt them." But Betsy, indifferent
creature, did not care a fig about all that; her only care was to watch her
little puppies stowed away one by one on fresh sweet-smelling straw, in the
same kennel where Doctor and his brothers and sisters had enjoyed their
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