| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: North Star once, and that maybe this one won't last always. I
wonder what would happen to us down here if anything went wrong
with it?"
Arthur chuckled. "I wouldn't worry, Ott. Nothing's apt to
happen to it in your time. Look at the Milky Way! There must be
lots of good dead Indians."
We lay back and looked, meditating, at the dark cover of the
world. The gurgle of the water had become heavier. We had often
noticed a mutinous, complaining note in it at night, quite
different from its cheerful daytime chuckle, and seeming like the
voice of a much deeper and more powerful stream. Our water had
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: it did not reach her spirit. For her, the world of living
persons was all resumed again into one pair, as in the days
of Eden; there was but the one end in life, the one hope
before her, the one thing needful, the one thing possible -
to be his.
THE YOUNG CHEVALIER
CHAPTER I - THE PRINCE
THAT same night there was in the city of Avignon a young man
in distress of mind. Now he sat, now walked in a high
apartment, full of draughts and shadows. A single candle
made the darkness visible; and the light scarce sufficed to
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