| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: water, which could be seen winding back in the hills, the stream tumbled madly
over a rocky ledge, and white with foam, it hurried onward as if impatient of
long restraint, and lost its individuality in the broad Ohio.
This solitary hunter was Colonel Ebenezer Zane. He was one of those daring
men, who, as the tide of emigration started westward, had left his friends and
family and had struck out alone into the wilderness. Departing from his home
in Eastern Virginia he had plunged into the woods, and after many days of
hunting and exploring, he reached the then far Western Ohio valley.
The scene so impressed Colonel Zane that he concluded to found a settlement
there. Taking "tomahawk possession" of the locality (which consisted of
blazing a few trees with his tomahawk), he built himself a rude shack and
Betty Zane |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: tiny wings and fluttered up to the anxious mother bird on the branches above
them, wholly unconscious that they had been in any peril whatsoever.
"And Black-and-white would have killed them, every one, if she had had the
chance," thought Tattine; "oh, if I only knew how to teach her a lesson!"
CHAPTER V. THE KIRKS AT HOME
Barney the donkey was harnessed, and Tattine sat in the little donkey-cart
waiting, and as she waited she was saying aloud, "What, Grandma Luty? Yes,
Grandma Luty. No, Grandma Luty. What did you say, Grandma Luty?" and this she
said in the most polite little tone imaginable. Meantime Rudolph and Mabel,
discovering that Tattine did not see them, came stealing along under cover of
the apple-trees.
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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 An International Episode by Henry James: Bessie was silent a moment. "That is one of the things I don't like
about England," she said; "your keeping the distinguished people apart."
"How do you mean apart?"
"Why, letting them come only to certain places.
You never see them."
Lord Lambeth looked at her a moment. "What people do you mean?"
"The eminent people--the authors and artists--the clever people."
"Oh, there are other eminent people besides those," said Lord Lambeth.
"Well, you certainly keep them apart," repeated the young girl.
"And there are other clever people," added Lord Lambeth simply.
Bessie Alden looked at him, and she gave a light laugh.
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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 On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: and, secondly, from them to themselves. But if I put my
head deliberately into the fire, there is no appeal to fire
or to the Maker for fire, and I have only myself to blame.
If I could convince myself that I have any right to be
satisfied with men as they are, and to treat them
accordingly, and not according, in some respects, to my
requisitions and expectations of what they and I ought to
be, then, like a good Mussulman and fatalist, I should
endeavor to be satisfied with things as they are, and say it
is the will of God. And, above all, there is this
difference between resisting this and a purely brute or
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
