| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs: them. This hairless white ape would be the first of his new
household, and so he threw her roughly across his broad, hairy
shoulders and leaped back into the trees, bearing Jane away.
Esmeralda's scream of terror had mingled once with that
of Jane, and then, as was Esmeralda's manner under stress of
emergency which required presence of mind, she swooned.
But Jane did not once lose consciousness. It is true that
that awful face, pressing close to hers, and the stench of the
foul breath beating upon her nostrils, paralyzed her with terror;
but her brain was clear, and she comprehended all that transpired.
With what seemed to her marvelous rapidity the brute bore her
Tarzan of the Apes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: In the night the doctor was called. The news went around in the
morning that the old couple were rather seriously ill--prostrated by
the exhausting excitement growing out of their great windfall, the
congratulations, and the late hours, the doctor said. The town was
sincerely distressed; for these old people were about all it had
left to be proud of, now.
Two days later the news was worse. The old couple were delirious,
and were doing strange things. By witness of the nurses, Richards
had exhibited cheques--for $8,500? No--for an amazing sum--$38,500!
What could be the explanation of this gigantic piece of luck?
The following day the nurses had more news--and wonderful. They had
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: the animal passion of hope, in the other simply by the animal
passion of fear. This abuse of the word "moral" has crossed, I am
sorry to say, the Atlantic; and a witty American, whom we must
excuse, though we must not imitate, when some one had been blazing
away at him with a revolver, he being unarmed, is said to have
described his very natural emotions on the occasion, by saying
that he felt dreadfully demoralised. We, I hope, shall confine
the word "demoralisation," as our generals of the last century
would have done, when applied to soldiers, to crime, including, of
course, the neglect of duty or of discipline; and we shall mean by
the word "heroism," in like manner, whether applied to a soldier
|
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 Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: of thunder.
"Oh!" cried Bess, nervously.
"We've had big black clouds before this without rain," said
Venters. "But there's no doubt about that thunder. The storms are
coming. I'm glad. Every rider on the sage will hear that thunder
with glad ears."
Venters and Bess finished their simple meal and the few tasks
around the camp, then faced the open terrace, the valley, and the
west, to watch and await the approaching storm.
It required keen vision to see any movement whatever in the
purple clouds. By infinitesimal degrees the dark cloud-line
Riders of the Purple Sage |
