| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: a deep hum. THAT is the noise of the spring--a vibrating boom
which is neither bees, nor falling water, nor the wind in tree-
tops, but the purring of the warm, happy world.
Up to this year Mowgli had always delighted in the turn of the
seasons. It was he who generally saw the first Eye-of-the-Spring
deep down among the grasses, and the first bank of spring
clouds, which are like nothing else in the Jungle. His voice
could be heard in all sorts of wet, star-lighted, blossoming
places, helping the big frogs through their choruses, or mocking
the little upside-down owls that hoot through the white nights.
Like all his people, spring was the season he chose for his
The Second Jungle Book |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The White Moll by Frank L. Packard: "Now, give me back that purse, please. Instantly!" The man,
already retreating into the alleyway, paused to fling back a
jeering laugh.
"Say, youse've got yer nerve, ain't youse!"
The girl turned her head so that the rays of the street lamp, faint
as they were, fell full upon her, disclosing a sweet, oval face,
out of which the dark eyes gazed steadily at the man.
And suddenly the man leaned forward, staring for an instant, and
then his hand went awkwardly to touch his cap.
"De White Moll!" he mumbled deferentially. He pulled the peak of
his cap down over his eyes in a sort of shame-faced way, as though
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: The earth beneath is characteristic of the treeless
lands, so that these seem to have been stuck alien into
it. There is no shelter save behind great fortuitous
rocks. Huge marmots run over the boulders, like
little bears. The wind blows strong. The streams run
naked under the eye of the sun, exposing clear and
yellow every detail of their bottoms. In them there
are no deep hiding-places any more than there is
shelter in the land, and so every fish that swims shows
as plainly as in an aquarium.
We saw them as we rode over the hot dry shale
|
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 Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: the persons of idle urchins, such as half-munched apples,
popguns, whirligigs, fly-cages, and whole legions of rampant
little paper game-cocks. Apparently there had been some appalling
act of justice recently inflicted, for his scholars were all
busily intent upon their books, or slyly whispering behind them
with one eye kept upon the master; and a kind of buzzing
stillness reigned throughout the schoolroom. It was suddenly
interrupted by the appearance of a negro in tow-cloth jacket and
trowsers. a round-crowned fragment of a hat, like the cap of
Mercury, and mounted on the back of a ragged, wild, half-broken
colt, which he managed with a rope by way of halter. He came
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
