| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling: rule, and Pertinax, if he chooses, Gaul. Today I wish strongly
you were with me to beat my Auxiliaries into shape. Do not, I
pray you, believe any rumour of my sickness. I have a little
evil in my old body which I shall cure by riding swiftly into Rome. "
'Said Pertinax: "It is finished with Maximus. He writes
as a man without hope. I, a man without hope, can see
this. What does he add at the bottom of the roll? 'Tell
Pertinax I have met his late Uncle, the Duumvir of Divio, and
that he accounted to me quite truthfully for all his Mother's
monies. I have sent her with a fitting escort, for she is the mother
of a hero, to Nicaea, where the climate is warm.'
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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 Call of the Wild by Jack London: Here and there Buck met Southland dogs, but in the main they were
the wild wolf husky breed. Every night, regularly, at nine, at
twelve, at three, they lifted a nocturnal song, a weird and eerie
chant, in which it was Buck's delight to join.
With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars
leaping in the frost dance, and the land numb and frozen under its
pall of snow, this song of the huskies might have been the
defiance of life, only it was pitched in minor key, with long-
drawn wailings and half-sobs, and was more the pleading of life,
the articulate travail of existence. It was an old song, old as
the breed itself--one of the first songs of the younger world in a
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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 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: Amelia deserves no better. Such a forward young lady
may well frighten the men."
"I should be but too happy in taking the part, if it
were possible," cried Tom; "but, unluckily, the Butler
and Anhalt are in together. I will not entirely give
it up, however; I will try what can be done--I will look
it over again."
"Your _brother_ should take the part," said Mr. Yates,
in a low voice. "Do not you think he would?"
"_I_ shall not ask him," replied Tom, in a cold,
determined manner.
Mansfield Park |
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 Heart of the West by O. Henry: imitation rubies around the flaps. The other one had to have a gold-
mounted horn, quadruple-plated stirrups, and the leather inlaid with
silver beadwork wherever it would stand it. Eleven hundred dollars the
two cost him.
"Then he goes out and heads toward the river, following his nose. In a
little side street, where there was no street and no sidewalks and no
houses, he finds what he is looking for. We go into a shanty and sit
on high stools among stevedores and boatmen, and eat beans with tin
spoons. Yes, sir, beans--beans boiled with salt pork.
"'I kind of thought we'd strike some over this way,' says Solly.
"'Delightful,' says I, 'That stylish hotel grub may appeal to some;
Heart of the West |
