| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: Nancy Lee- -and Blueskin burned her--off Currituck"
"Burned her off Currituck!" repeated Levi. Then suddenly a light
seemed to break upon his comprehension. "Burned by Blueskin!" he
repeated, and thereupon flung himself back in his chair and
burst into a short, boisterous fit of laughter. "Well, by the
Holy Eternal, Hi, if that isn't a piece of your tarnal luck.
Burned by Blueskin, was it?" He paused for a moment, as though
turning it over in his mind. Then he laughed again. "All the
same," said he presently, "d'ye see, I can't suffer for
Blueskin's doings. The money was willed to me, fair and true,
and you have got to pay it, Hiram White, burn or sink, Blueskin
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: render it back to us with usury. Let us leave on our way the alms
of pardon for those whom earthly desires have driven astray, whom
a divine hope shall perhaps save, and, as old women say when they
offer you. some homely remedy of their own, if it does no good it
will do no harm.
Doubtless it must seem a bold thing to attempt to deduce these
grand results out of the meagre subject that I deal with; but I
am one of those who believe that all is in little. The child is
small, and he includes the man; the brain is narrow, and it
harbours thought; the eye is but a point, and it covers leagues.
Chapter 4
Camille |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey: salacious and absurd misrepresentations of life, in some cases capably
acted by skillful actors, and in others a silly series of scenes featuring
some doll-faced girl.
But she refused to go horseback riding in Central Park. She refused to go
to the Plaza. And these refusals she made deliberately, without asking
herself why.
On August 1st she accompanied her aunt and several friends to Lake Placid,
where they established themselves at a hotel. How welcome to Carley's
strained eyes were the green of mountains, the soft gleam of amber water!
How sweet and refreshing a breath of cool pure air! The change from New
York's glare and heat and dirt, and iron-red insulating walls, and
The Call of the Canyon |
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 Desert Gold by Zane Grey: of unreality, and it was never in vain.
Thus the nights passed, endlessly long, with Gale fighting for his
old order of thought, fighting the fascination of the infinite sky,
and the gloomy insulating whirl of the wide shadows, fighting for
belief, hope, prayer, fighting against that terrible ever-recurring
idea of being lost, lost, lost in the desert, fighting harder than
any other thing the insidious, penetrating, tranquil, unfeeling
self that was coming between him and his memory.
He was losing the battle, losing his hold on tangible things,
losing his power to stand up under this ponderous, merciless weight
of desert space and silence.
Desert Gold |
