| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: He got into rough country, rode for three days without covering
much ground, but believed that he was getting on safer
territory. Twice he came to a wide bottom-land green with
willow and cottonwood and thick as chaparral, somewhere through
the middle of which ran a river he decided must be the lower
Nueces.
One evening, as he stole out from a covert where he had camped,
he saw the lights of a village. He tried to pass it on the
left, but was unable to because the brakes of this bottom-land
extended in almost to the outskirts of the village, and he had
to retrace his steps and go round to the right. Wire fences and
The Lone Star Ranger |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: along, I noticed the footprints of many hoofs, rain-blurred but
recent, and these were the tracks of the people I had met in the
stable.
"You can notice Monte's," said the Virginian. "He is the only one
that has his hind feet shod. There's several trails from this
point down to where we have come from."
We mounted now over a long slant of rock, smooth and of wide
extent Above us it went up easily into a little side canyon, but
ahead, where our way was, it grew so steep that we got off and
led our horses. This brought us to the next higher level of the
mountain, a space of sagebrush more open, where the rain-washed
The Virginian |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Octopus by Frank Norris: shoulder, "don't--call me that way again; promise. See," he held
out his hand, "I am all of a tremble. There, we won't speak of
it further. Wait for me a moment. I have only to put the cross
in its place, and a fresh altar cloth, and then I am done. To-
morrow is the feast of The Holy Cross, and I am preparing against
it. The night is fine. We will smoke a cigar in the cloister
garden."
A few moments later the two passed out of the door on the other
side of the church, opposite the pulpit, Sarria adjusting a silk
skull cap on his tonsured head. He wore his cassock now, and was
far more the churchman in appearance than when Vanamee and
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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, Detective by Mark Twain: be afeared we'll tell. And if you think it'll be safer for
you if we don't let on to know you when we run across you,
say the word and you'll see you can depend on us, and would
ruther cut our hands off than get you into the least little bit of danger."
First off he looked surprised to see us, and not
very glad, either; but as Tom went on he looked pleasanter,
and when he was done he smiled, and nodded his head
several times, and made signs with his hands, and says:
"Goo-goo--goo-goo," the way deef and dummies does.
Just then we see some of Steve Nickerson's people coming
that lived t'other side of the prairie, so Tom says:
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