| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Complete Poems of Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Monna Giovanna and her bosom friend,
Intent upon their errand and its end.
They found Ser Federigo at his toil,
Like banished Adam, delving in the soil;
And when he looked and these fair women spied,
The garden suddenly was glorified;
His long-lost Eden was restored again,
And the strange river winding through the plain
No longer was the Arno to his eyes,
But the Euphrates watering Paradise!
Monna Giovanna raised her stately head,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs: shocked his overwrought mind back into the path of
sanity. It had left him with a clear remembrance
of the past, other than the recent fight in the
living room--that was a blank--and it had given him
a clearer perspective of the plans he had been entertaining
for so long relative to this soulless creature.
The first thought that sprang to his mind as he saw
Number Thirteen before him was of his mad intention to
give his daughter to such a monstrous thing. With the
recollection came a sudden loathing and hatred of this
and the other creatures of his unholy experimentations.
The Monster Men |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: A headless corse in fight late overthrown,
The witch in his forsaken arms did hide,
And by a brook exposed it on the sand
Whither she wished would come a Christian band:
LIV
"Their coming might the dame foreknow right well,
For secret spies she sent forth thousand ways,
Which every day news from the camp might tell,
Who parted thence, booties to search or preys:
Beside, the sprites conjured by sacred spell,
All what she asks or doubts, reveals and says,
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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 The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: the calf stepped as you shot."
Chapter XV.
So the days passed swiftly, dreamily, each one bringing Joe a keener delight.
In a single month he was as good a woodsman as many pioneers who had passed
years on the border, for he had the advantage of a teacher whose woodcraft was
incomparable. Besides, he was naturally quick in learning, and with all his
interest centered upon forest lore, it was no wonder he assimilated much of
Wetzel's knowledge. He was ever willing to undertake anything whereby he might
learn. Often when they were miles away in the dense forest, far from their
cave, he asked Wetzel to let him try to lead the way back to camp. And he
never failed once, though many times he got off a straight course, thereby
The Spirit of the Border |
