| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: ting a strident and cruel uproar, the sound of the fa-
miliar scene, the living part of the broken land beneath,
of the outspread sea, and of the high sky without a
flaw.
But when the Sofala happened to close with the land
after sunset she would find everything very still there
under the mantle of the night. All would be still, dumb,
almost invisible--but for the blotting out of the low
constellations occulted in turns behind the vague masses
of the islets whose true outlines eluded the eye amongst
the dark spaces of the heaven: and the ship's three lights,
End of the Tether |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: face upon all things, believed in play, loved it himself, shared
boyishly in theirs, and knew how to put a face of entertainment
upon business and a spirit of education into entertainment. If he
was to test the progress of the three boys, this advertisement
would appear in their little manuscript paper:- 'Notice: The
Professor of Engineering in the University of Edinburgh intends at
the close of the scholastic year to hold examinations in the
following subjects: (1) For boys in the fourth class of the
Academy - Geometry and Algebra; (2) For boys at Mr. Henderson's
school - Dictation and Recitation; (3) For boys taught exclusively
by their mothers - Arithmetic and Reading.' Prizes were given; but
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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 Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: oboe, in fact. You remember in 'Henry IV'--
"'The case of a treble hautboy
Was a mansion for him, a court.'
From this to ho-boy is but a step, and for that matter the English used the
terms interchangeably. But--and mark you, the leap paralyzes one--crossing the
Western Ocean, in New York City, hautboy, or ho-boy, becomes the name by which
the night-scavenger is known. In a way one understands its being born of the
contempt for wandering players and musical fellows. But see the beauty of it!
the burn and the brand! The night-scavenger, the pariah, the miserable, the
despised, the man without caste! And in its next incarnation, consistently and
logically, it attaches itself to the American outcast, namely, the tramp.
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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 Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain: was right as to the rest of the world, but she warn't
right about the part our village is in; that part is the
shape of a plate, and flat, I take my oath!
The professor had been quiet all this time, as if he
was asleep; but he broke loose now, and he was mighty
bitter. He says something like this:
"Idiots! They said it wouldn't go; and they
wanted to examine it, and spy around and get the
secret of it out of me. But I beat them. Nobody
knows the secret but me. Nobody knows what makes
it move but me; and it's a new power -- a new power,
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