| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lucile by Owen Meredith: At one draught? Bah! I tell you! I, bachelor John,
Have had griefs of my own. But what then? I push on
All the faster perchance that I yet feel the pain
Of my last fall, albeit I may stumble again.
God means every man to be happy, be sure.
He sends us no sorrows that have not some cure.
Our duty down here is to do, not to know.
Live as though life were earnest, and life will be so.
Let each moment, like Time's last ambassador, come:
It will wait to deliver its message; and some
Sort of answer it merits. It is not the deed
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: through the mist, and the clank of spurs and sabres echoed incessantly
from the brick floor. Some were playing cards, others argued, or held
their tongues and ate, drank, or walked about. One stout little woman,
wearing a black velvet cap, blue and silver stomacher, pincushion,
bunch of keys, silver buckles, braided hair,--all distinctive signs of
the mistress of a German inn (a costume which has been so often
depicted in colored prints that it is too common to describe here),--
well, this wife of the innkeeper kept the two friends alternately
patient and impatient with remarkable ability.
Little by little the noise decreased, the various travellers retired
to their rooms, the clouds of smoke dispersed. When places were set
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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 New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: These low hillocks and shallow dells, running one into another,
became a kind of cloak of darkness for my enthralling, but perhaps
dishonourable, pursuit. Yet, in spite of this advantage, I could
learn but little of Northmour or his guests.
Fresh provisions were brought under cover of darkness by the old
woman from the mansion-house. Northmour, and the young lady,
sometimes together, but more often singly, would walk for an hour
or two at a time on the beach beside the quicksand. I could not
but conclude that this promenade was chosen with an eye to secrecy;
for the spot was open only to the seaward. But it suited me not
less excellently; the highest and most accidented of the sand-hills
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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: "I reckon you're right."
A long silence ensued,. Jonathan finished his simple repast, drank from the
little spring that trickled under the stone, and, sitting down by the dog,
smoothed out his long silken hair.
"Lew, we're pretty good friends, ain't we?" he asked, thoughtfully.
"Jack, you an' the colonel are all the friends I ever hed, 'ceptin' that boy
lyin' quiet back there in the woods."
"I know you pretty well, and ain't sayin' a word about your runnin' off from
me on many a hunt, but I want to speak plain about this fellow Girty."
"Wal?" said Wetzel, as Zane hesitated.
"Twice in the last few years you and I have had it in for the same men, both
The Spirit of the Border |
