| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Out of Time's Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs: spoke again in an almost inaudible voice. "Holy Mother protect
us--it's a banshee!"
Bradley, always cool almost to indifference in the face of
danger, felt a strange, creeping sensation run over his flesh, as
slowly, not a hundred feet above them, the thing flapped itself
across the sky, its huge, round eyes glaring down upon them.
And until it disappeared over the tops of the trees of a near-by
wood the five men stood as though paralyzed, their eyes never
leaving the weird shape; nor never one of them appearing to recall
that he grasped a loaded rifle in his hands.
With the passing of the thing, came the reaction. Tippet sank to
Out of Time's Abyss |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Came the Delawares and Mohawks,
Came the Choctaws and Camanches,
Came the Shoshonies and Blackfeet,
Came the Pawnees and Omahas,
Came the Mandans and Dacotahs,
Came the Hurons and Ojibways,
All the warriors drawn together
By the signal of the Peace-Pipe,
To the Mountains of the Prairie,
To the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry,
And they stood there on the meadow,
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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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: for word, as nearly as I could remember them.
"Is that right?" I asked of Marais when I had finished.
"It is right; you have a good memory," he answered.
"Very well. And now what have you to say, Marie?"
"I, dear Allan? Why, this: My life belongs to you, who have twice saved
this body of mine from death, as my love and spirit belong to you.
Therefore, I should have thought it no shame if I had been given to you
here and now before the people, and afterwards married by a clergyman
when we found one. But my father has sworn an oath which weighs upon
his mind, and he has shown you that within six months--a short six
months--that oath dies of itself, since, by the law, he can no longer
Marie |
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 Mother by Owen Wister: with the arrangement of the coupons. 'Thirty dollars on January first,
and thirty on July first,' she said. That seems a long while to wait for
those payments, Richard. And there are only two in every year, though you
pay them a thousand dollars all at once. It does not seem very prompt on
their part.' I told her that this was the rule. 'But,' she urged, 'don't
you think that a man like Mr. Beverly might be able to get them to make
an exception if he explained the circumstances? Other people may be
satisfied with waiting for little crumbs in this way, but why should we?'
I soon made her understand how it was, however, and I explained many
other facts about investments and the stock market to her, as I learned
them. It was a great pleasure to do this. We came to talk about finance
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