| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: arrived at Adranum about the same time; Hicetes bringing with him at
least five thousand fighting men, while all the force Timoleon could
make did not exceed twelve hundred. With these he marched out of
Tauromenium, which was about three hundred and forty furlongs distant
from that city. The first day he moved but slowly, and took up his
quarters betimes after a short journey; but the day following he
quickened his pace, and, having passed through much difficult ground,
towards evening received advice that Hicetes was just approaching
Adranum, and pitching his camp before it; upon which intelligence,
his captains and other officers caused the vanguard to halt, that the
army being refreshed, and having reposed a while, might engage the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: come to me even in secret. Now I have to-day for a rest, and
to-morrow to Malie. Shall I be suffered to embark? It is
very doubtful; they are on the trail. On Thursday, a
policeman came up to me and began that a boy had been to see
him, and said I was going to see Mataafa. - 'And what did
you say?' said I. - 'I told him I did not know about where
you were going,' said he. - 'A very good answer,' said I, and
turned away. It is lashing rain to-day, but to-morrow, rain
or shine, I must at least make the attempt; and I am so
weary, and the weather looks so bad. I could half wish they
would arrest me on the beach. All this bother and pother to
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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 Blix by Frank Norris: some place; and then we can go to that place and hide, and watch."
"But how will we know them? How would they know each other?
They've never met."
"We'll tell them both to wear a kind of flower. Then we can know
them, and they can know each other. Of course as soon as they
began to talk they would find out they hadn't written."
"But they wouldn't care."
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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 Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: trigger.
Luckily the gun hung fire, and the Yankee captain was spared to
steal logwood a while longer.
All the same, that was no place for Ned Low to make a longer
stay, so off he and his messmates rowed in a whaleboat, captured
a brig out at sea, and turned pirates.
He presently fell in with the notorious Captain Lowther, a fellow
after his own kidney, who put the finishing touches to his
education and taught him what wickedness he did not already know.
And so he became a master pirate, and a famous hand at his craft,
and thereafter forever bore an inveterate hatred of all Yankees
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
