| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey: she asked her aunt: "Why did not Glenn bring me here?" As if this Canyon
proved the nature of all things!
But in the end Carley found that the rending strife of the transformation
of her attitude toward life had insensibly ceased. It had ceased during the
long watching of this cataclysm of nature, this canyon of gold-banded
black-fringed ramparts, and red-walled mountains which sloped down to be
lost in purple depths. That was final proof of the strength of nature to
soothe, to clarify, to stabilize the tried and weary and upward-gazing
soul. Stronger than the recorded deeds of saints, stronger than the
eloquence of the gifted uplifters of men, stronger than any words ever
written, was the grand, brooding, sculptured aspect of nature. And it must
The Call of the Canyon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: There was certainly opportunity for the nigger's enjoyment, for the
open well-hole was almost under his nose, sending up such a stench
as almost made Adam sick, though Lady Arabella seemed not to mind it
at all. It was like nothing that Adam had ever met with. He
compared it with all the noxious experiences he had ever had--the
drainage of war hospitals, of slaughter-houses, the refuse of
dissecting rooms. None of these was like it, though it had
something of them all, with, added, the sourness of chemical waste
and the poisonous effluvium of the bilge of a water-logged ship
whereon a multitude of rats had been drowned.
Then, quite unexpectedly, the negro noticed the presence of a third
Lair of the White Worm |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The White Moll by Frank L. Packard: And then she stopped again. She could see quite clearly now - that
is, there was nothing now to obstruct her view; but the light was
miserable and poor, and the single gas-jet that wheezed and flickered
did little more than disperse the shadows from its immediate
neighborhood in that inner room. But she could see enough - she
could see the bent and ill-clad figure of Nicky Viner, as she
remembered him, an old, gray-bearded man, wringing his hands in
groveling misery, while the mumbling voice, now whining and pleading,
now servile, now plucking up courage to indulge in abuse, kept on
without even, it seemed, a pause for breath. And she could see the
Adventurer, quite unmoved, quite debonair, a curiously patient smile
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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 Astoria by Washington Irving: Madison, and never heard again anything concerning the subject in
question.
I remain, dear sir, most respectfully, Your obedient servant,
ALBERT GALLATIN.
John Jacob Astor, Esq.,
New York.
Notices of the Present State of the Fur Trade, chiefly extracted
from an article published in Silliman's Magazine for January,
1834.
THE Northwest Company did not long enjoy the sway they had
acquired over the trading regions of the Columbia. A competition,
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