| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: one smite them and take their life away" (A. Lang).
From this extremity there is but one means of escape, and one alone,
for the luckless prisoner. One of his fellow-huntsmen must approach
with boar-spear and provoke the boar, making as though he would let
fly at him; but let fly he must not, for fear of hitting the man under
him. The boar, on seeing this, will leave the fallen man, and in rage
and fury turn to grapple his assailant. The other will seize the
instant to spring to his feet, and not forget to clutch his boar-spear
as he rises to his legs again; since rescue cannot be nobly purchased
save by victory.[31] Let him again bring the weapon to bear in the
same fashion, and make a lunge at a point within the shoulder-blade,
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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 Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: The telephone, however, had carried the word to Oak-
dale; so that before Burton arrived there a dozen auto-
mobile loads of indignant citizens were racing south to-
ward Payson.
Bridge and The Oskaloosa Kid were hustled into the
single cell of the Payson jail. A bench ran along two
sides of the room. A single barred window let out upon
the yard behind the structure. The floor was littered
with papers, and a single electric light bulb relieved the
gloom of the unsavory place.
The Oskaloosa Kid sank, trembling, upon one of the
The Oakdale Affair |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: the Northland they have discovered that prayer is only efficacious
when backed by muscle, and they are accustomed to doing things for
themselves. God is everywhere, they have heard, but he flings a
shadow over the land for half the year that they may not find him;
so they grope in darkness, and it is not to be wondered that they
often doubt, and deem the Decalogue out of gear.
Jan ran blindly, reckoning not of the way of his feet, for he was
mastered by the verb "to live." To live! To exist! Buck flashed
gray through the air, but missed. The man struck madly at him,
and stumbled. Then the white teeth of Bright closed on his
mackinaw jacket, and he pitched into the snow. TO LIVE! TO
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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 A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: occupation consisted in first putting his name intrepidly to various
paragraphs, on which the public prosecutor fastened with avidity, and
subsequently marching off to prison. A man could make a name for
himself with small expense in those days. The Liberal party called
their provincial champion 'the courageous Cerizet,' and towards 1828
so much zeal received its reward in 'general interest.'
" 'General interest' is a kind of civic crown bestowed on the
deserving by the daily press. Cerizet tried to discount the 'general
interest' taken in him. He came to Paris, and, with some help from
capitalists in the Opposition, started as a broker, and conducted
financial operations to some extent, the capital being found by a man
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