| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: next night we showed in a little town, and done
right well, and took in considerable money. We
stayed there three days and bought a tent and a
sheet-iron stove and some skillets and things and
some provisions, and a suit of duds for me.
Well, we went on, and we kept going on, and they
was bully times. We'd ease up careful toward a
town, and pick us out a place on the edge, where
the hosses could graze along the side of the road;
and most ginerally by a piece of woods not fur from
that town, and nigh a crick, if we could. Then
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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 Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: English, as this d--d scrawl seems to intimate, where are we?"
"Just where we were this morning, I think," said Mareschal, still
laughing.
"Pardon me, and a truce to your ill-timed mirth, Mr. Mareschal;
this morning we were not committed publicly, as we now stand
committed by your own mad act, when you had a letter in your
pocket apprizing you that our undertaking was desperate."
"Ay, ay, I expected you would say so. But, in the first place,
my friend Nihil Nameless and his letter may be all a flam; and,
moreover, I would have you know that I am tired of a party that
does nothing but form bold resolutions overnight, and sleep them
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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 The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: and is finally quiet with the sticky stillness of despair?
Well, I was the fly. I had seen too much of circumstantial evidence
to have any belief that the establishing of my identity would weigh
much against the other incriminating details. It meant imprisonment
and trial, probably, with all the notoriety and loss of practice
they would entail. A man thinks quickly at a time like that. All
the probable consequences of the finding of that pocket-book flashed
through my mind as I extended my hand to take it. Then I drew my
arm back.
"I don't want it," I said. "Look inside. Maybe the other man took
the money and left the wallet."
The Man in Lower Ten |
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 From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: off my head, beginning at my feet, before they could have made
me solve that problem."
"Because you do not know algebra," answered Barbicane quietly.
"Ah, there you are, you eaters of _x_^1; you think you have said
all when you have said `Algebra.'"
"Michel," said Barbicane, "can you use a forge without a hammer,
or a plow without a plowshare?"
"Hardly."
"Well, algebra is a tool, like the plow or the hammer, and a
good tool to those who know how to use it."
"Seriously?"
From the Earth to the Moon |
