| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: "There's a nut for _you_ to crack."
Mr. Dowlas was the negative spirit in the company, and was proud of
his position.
"Say? I say what a man _should_ say as doesn't shut his eyes to
look at a finger-post. I say, as I'm ready to wager any man ten
pound, if he'll stand out wi' me any dry night in the pasture before
the Warren stables, as we shall neither see lights nor hear noises,
if it isn't the blowing of our own noses. That's what I say, and
I've said it many a time; but there's nobody 'ull ventur a ten-pun'
note on their ghos'es as they make so sure of."
"Why, Dowlas, that's easy betting, that is," said Ben Winthrop.
Silas Marner |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: favoured hollows a whole family of infant rivers would combine, and
tinkle in the stones, and lie in pools to be a bathing-place for
sparrows, or fall from the sheer rock in rods of crystal. Upon all
these things, as she still sped along in the bright air, she looked
with a rapture of surprise and a joyful fainting of the heart; they
seemed so novel, they touched so strangely home, they were so hued
and scented, they were so beset and canopied by the dome of the blue
air of heaven.
At length, when she was well weary, she came upon a wide and shallow
pool. Stones stood in it, like islands; bulrushes fringed the
coast; the floor was paved with the pine needles; and the pines
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Ghak was leading us to his own land--the land of Sari.
No sign of pursuit had developed, and yet we were sure
that somewhere behind us relentless Sagoths were dogging
our tracks. Ghak said they never failed to hunt down
their quarry until they had captured it or themselves been
turned back by a superior force.
Our only hope, he said, lay in reaching his tribe
which was quite strong enough in their mountain fastness
to beat off any number of Sagoths.
At last, after what seemed months, and may, I now realize,
have been years, we came in sight of the dun escarpment
At the Earth's Core |
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 The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: "Might jes' as well kick an' Injun. What has he ag'in you?"
"I don't know. Perhaps he did not like my talk to him," answered Jim. "I am a
preacher, and have come west to teach the gospel to the Indians."
"They're good Injuns now," said Wetzel, pointing to the prostrate figures.
"How did you find us?" eagerly asked Joe.
"Run acrost yer trail two days back."
"And you've been following us?"
The hunter nodded.
"Did you see anything of another band of Indians? A tall chief and Jim Girty
were among them."
"They've been arter me fer two days. I was followin' you when Silvertip got
The Spirit of the Border |
