| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: appetites and concoctions.--
--But which of the two, in the present case, do you think to be mostly in
the wrong?
You, certainly: quoth she, to disturb a whole family so early.
Chapter 3.XCVII.
--But she did not know I was under a vow not to shave my beard till I got
to Paris;--yet I hate to make mysteries of nothing;--'tis the cold
cautiousness of one of those little souls from which Lessius (lib. 13. de
moribus divinis, cap. 24.) hath made his estimate, wherein he setteth
forth, That one Dutch mile, cubically multiplied, will allow room enough,
and to spare, for eight hundred thousand millions, which he supposes to be
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: Ignorance here. It will be much safer for your flock if I go and join the
other serpents at San Francisco."
Soon after breakfast the Padre had his two mules saddled, and he and his
guest set forth down the hills together to the shore. And, beneath the
spell and confidence of pleasant, slow riding and the loveliness of
everything, the young man talked freely of himself.
"And, seriously," said he, "if I missed nothing else at Santa Ysabel, I
should long for--how shall I say it?--for insecurity, for danger, and of
all kinds--not merely danger to the body. Within these walls, beneath
these sacred bells, you live too safe for a man like me."
"Too safe!" These echoed words upon the lips of the pale Padre were a
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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 A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: think unconsciously) color such facts as are to England's discredit and
leave pale such as are to her credit, just as we remember the Alabama,
and forget the Lancashire cotton-spinners. You cannot fail to find,
unless your anti-English complex tilts your judgment incurably, that
England has been to us, on the whole, very much more friendly than
unfriendly--if not at the beginning, certainly at the end of each
controversy. What an anti-English complex can do in the face of 1914, is
hard to imagine: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, the Boers, all
Great Britain's colonies, coming across the world to pour their gold and
their blood out for her! She did not ask them; she could not force them;
of their own free will they did it. In the whole story of mankind such a
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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 Rinkitink In Oz by L. Frank Baum: the pearls, for otherwise the fierce warriors would
have been defeated and driven out of Pingaree. So they
must still be in their hiding place, and Inga believed
they would prove of great assistance to him and his
comrades in this hour of need. But the palace was a
mass of ruins; perhaps he would be unable now to find
the place where the pearls were hidden.
He said nothing of this to Rinkitink, remembering
that his father had charged him to preserve the secret
of the pearls and of their magic powers. Nevertheless,
the thought of securing the wonderful treasures of his
Rinkitink In Oz |
