| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: meek as his own drenched horses, he climbed back to his reins,
and nursed the stage on toward the Bow Leg Mountains much as if
it had been a perambulator.
As for Miss Wood, she sat recovering, and she wondered what the
man on the horse must think of her. She knew that she was not
ungrateful, and that if he had given her an opportunity she would
have explained to him. If he supposed that she did not appreciate
his act--Here into the midst of these meditations came an abrupt
memory that she had screamed--she could not be sure when. She
rehearsed the adventure from the beginning, and found one or two
further uncertainties--how it had all been while she was on the
The Virginian |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum: ropes to snare you with, that all we beasts get together and march
against the Oz people and capture them. Then the beasts will become
the masters and the people their slaves."
"What good would that do us?" asked Bru the Bear.
"It would save you from slavery, for one thing, and you could enjoy
all the fine things of Oz people have."
"Beasts wouldn't know what to do with the things people use," said
the Gray Ape.
"But this is only part of my plan," insisted the Nome. "Listen to
the rest of it. We two Li-Mon-Eags are powerful magicians. When you
have conquered the Oz people we will transform them all into beasts,
The Magic of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: the grace of those softly flowing years when she knew no pain was
eclipsed by the brightness of a memory precious though ill-fated. The
joyous peace of her childhood was far less sweet to her than a single
one of the troubles scattered upon the last two years of her
childhood,--years that were rich in treasures now buried forever in
her heart.
The vision brought her suddenly to that morning, that ravishing
morning, when in the grand old parlor panelled and carved in oak,
which served the family as a dining-room, she saw her handsome cousin
for the first time. Alarmed by the seditions in Paris, her mother's
family had sent the young courtier to Rouen, hoping that he could
|
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 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: morning was, as he had been indeed all night, in a violent fever.
However, it went off again, and he recovered, though but
slowly, and when he came to be a little better, he told me I
had given him a mortal wound with my tongue, and he had
only one thing to ask before he desired an explanation. I
interrupted him, and told him I was sorry I had gone so far,
since I saw what disorder it put him into, but I desired him
not to talk to me of explanations, for that would but make
things worse.
This heightened his impatience, and, indeed, perplexed him
beyond all bearing; for now he began to suspect that there
Moll Flanders |
