| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: afore sundown,' jest as Bill and me hev done to-day. Some years agone I was
comin' up from Fort Henry, an' had on board my slow old scow a lass named
Milly--we never learned her other name. She come to me at the fort, an' tells
as how her folks hed been killed by Injuns, an' she wanted to git back to Pitt
to meet her sweetheart. I was ag'in her comin' all along, an' fust off I said
'No." But when I seen tears in her blue eyes, an' she puts her little hand on
mine, I jest wilted, an' says to Jim Blair, 'She goes.' Wal, jest as might
hev' been expected--an' fact is I looked fer it--we wus tackled by redskins.
Somehow, Jim Girty got wind of us hevin' a lass aboard, an' he ketched up with
us jest below here. It's a bad place, called Shawnee Rock, an' I'll show it to
ye termorrer. The renegade, with his red devils, attacked us thar, an' we had
The Spirit of the Border |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: public order is the ever lessening habit of submission inherited from
ancestors who, being truly governed, submitted because they had to.
There are as many kinds of republics as there are graduations between
the despotism whence they came and the anarchy whither they lead.
REQUIEM, n. A mass for the dead which the minor poets assure us the
winds sing o'er the graves of their favorites. Sometimes, by way of
providing a varied entertainment, they sing a dirge.
RESIDENT, adj. Unable to leave.
RESIGN, v.t. To renounce an honor for an advantage. To renounce an
advantage for a greater advantage.
'Twas rumored Leonard Wood had signed
The Devil's Dictionary |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: Epistles are spurious, as that the Republic, the Timaeus, and the Laws are
genuine.
On the whole, not a twentieth part of the writings which pass under the
name of Plato, if we exclude the works rejected by the ancients themselves
and two or three other plausible inventions, can be fairly doubted by those
who are willing to allow that a considerable change and growth may have
taken place in his philosophy (see above). That twentieth debatable
portion scarcely in any degree affects our judgment of Plato, either as a
thinker or a writer, and though suggesting some interesting questions to
the scholar and critic, is of little importance to the general reader.
ALCIBIADES I
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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 Adieu by Honore de Balzac: "Grenadier, turn over those sleepers, and take their shawls and linen,
to eke out."
"Tiens! that's one dead," said the grenadier, stripping the first man
he came to. "Bless me! what a joke, they are all dead!"
"All?"
"Yes, all; seems as if horse-meat must be indigestible if eaten with
snow."
The words made Philippe tremble. The cold was increasing.
"My God! to lose the woman I have saved a dozen times!"
The major shook the countess.
"Stephanie! Stephanie!"
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