| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Bridge started on a run toward the gateway, followed
by the frightened Kid. In the ditch beside the road they
found in a dishevelled heap the body of a young woman.
The man lifted the still form in his arms. The youth
wondered at the great strength of the slight figure. "Let
me help you carry her," he volunteered; but Bridge
needed no assistance. "Run ahead and open the door for
me," he said, as he bore his burden toward the house.
Forgetful, in the excitement of the moment, of his
terror of the horror ridden ruin, The Oskaloosa Kid has-
tened ahead, mounted the few steps to the verandah,
The Oakdale Affair |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Reign of King Edward the Third by William Shakespeare: And in thy tyranous proceeding slay
His faithful subjects and subvert his Towns,
Spits in thy face; and in this manner following
Obraids thee with thine arrogant intrusion:
First, I condemn thee for a fugitive,
A thievish pirate, and a needy mate,
One that hath either no abiding place,
Or else, inhabiting some barren soil,
Where neither herb or fruitful grain is had,
Doest altogether live by pilfering:
Next, insomuch thou hast infringed thy faith,
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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 Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: laid his lingers on her knee.
'You shouldn't cry,' he said softly.
But then she put her hands over her face and felt that really her heart
was broken and nothing mattered any more.
He laid his hand on her shoulder, and softly, gently, it began to
travel down the curve of her back, blindly, with a blind stroking
motion, to the curve of her crouching loins. And there his hand softly,
softly, stroked the curve of her flank, in the blind instinctive
caress.
She had found her scrap of handkerchief and was blindly trying to dry
her face.
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
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 The Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson: And the lonely trees around us creak the warning of the night-wind,
That love and all the dreams of love are away beyond the mountains.
The songs that call for us to-night, they have called for men before us,
And the winds that blow the message, they have blown ten thousand years;
But this will end our wander-time, for we know the joy that waits us
In the strangeness of home-coming, and a faithful woman's eyes.
Come away! come away! there is nothing now to cheer us --
Nothing now to comfort us, but love's road home: --
Over there beyond the darkness there's a window gleams to greet us,
And a warm hearth waits for us within.
Come away! come away! -- or the roving-fiend will hold us,
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