| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: Herky was as relentless in his travelling as I had found him in some other
ways. He kept his pony at a trot. The trail was open, we made fast time,
and when the sun had begun to cast a shadow before us we were going
down-hill. Busy with the thought of my friends, I scarcely noted the
passing of time. It was a surprise to me when we rode down the last little
foot-hill, out into the scattered pines, and saw Holston only a few miles
across the sage-flat.
"Wal, kid, we've come to the partin' of the ways," said Herky, with a
strange smile on his smug face.
"Herky, won't you ride in with me?"
"Naw, I reckon it'd not be healthy fer me."
The Young Forester |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: brought him here, James," said he, throwing his head back. "It's
like making me a traitor!"
"Now, Alan, man!" cried James. "Look things in the face! He'll
be papered anyway; Mungo Campbell'll be sure to paper him; what
matters if I paper him too? And then, Alan, I am a man that has
a family." And then, after a little pause on both sides, "And,
Alan, it'll be a jury of Campbells," said he.
"There's one thing," said Alan, musingly, "that naebody kens his
name."
"Nor yet they shallnae, Alan! There's my hand on that," cried
James, for all the world as if he had really known my name and
Kidnapped |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: make their own grand little act of faith. They'll offer one another
up.'
'You mean kill one another?'
'I do, duckie! If we go on at our present rate then in a hundred years'
time there won't be ten thousand people in this island: there may not
be ten. They'll have lovingly wiped each other out. The thunder was
rolling further away.
'How nice!' she said.
'Quite nice! To contemplate the extermination of the human species and
the long pause that follows before some other species crops up, it
calms you more than anything else. And if we go on in this way, with
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
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 Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: flaming, and with an air of silent determination on
his chalky physiognomy. Ransome tells me he
devours all the food that is given him to the last
scrap, but that, apparently, he sleeps very little.
Even at night, when I go below to fill my pipe, I
notice that, though dozing flat on his back, he
still looks very determined. From the side glance
he gives me when awake it seems as though he were
annoyed at being interrupted in some arduous
mental operation; and as I emerge on deck the
ordered arrangement of the stars meets my eye, un-
The Shadow Line |
