| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: caught sight of Wetzel's familiar figure. She ran to him and the hunter put
one of his long arms around her.
"I reckon I kin take care of you, Betty," he said, a smile playing over his
usually stern face. "See here, you young bucks. Betty don't want to be kissed,
and if you keep on pesterin' her I'll have to scalp a few of you."
The merriment grew as the day progressed. During the wedding feast great
hilarity prevailed. It culminated in the dance which followed the dinner. The
long room of the block-house had been decorated with evergreens, autumn leaves
and goldenrod, which were scattered profusely about, hiding the blackened
walls and bare rafters. Numerous blazing pine knots, fastened on sticks which
were stuck into the walls, lighted up a scene, which for color and animation
Betty Zane |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: both of which he had donned on account, he said, of their dark
colour. In his hand was the Winchester repeating rifle we had
lent him; and stuck in an elastic cricketing belt, like those
worn by English boys, were, first, a huge buckhorn-handled carving
knife with a guard to it, and next a long-barrelled Colt's revolver.
'Ah, my friend,' he said, seeing me staring at his belt, 'you
are looking at my "carver". I thought it might come in handy
if we came to close quarters; it is excellent steel, and many
is the pig I have killed with it.'
By this time everybody was up and dressing. I put on a light
Norfolk jacket over my mail shirt in order to have a pocket handy
Allan Quatermain |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: fatting for the destined vortex. The graceful swan, the
mongrels, the black-necked wild goose; partridges, quails,
pheasants and pigeons; choice water fowl, with all their strange
varieties, are caught in this huge family net. Beef, veal,
mutton and venison, of the most select kinds and quality, roll
bounteously to this grand consumer. The teeming riches of the
Chesapeake bay, its rock, perch, drums, crocus, trout, oysters,
crabs, and terrapin, are drawn hither to adorn the glittering
table of the great house. The dairy, too, probably the finest on
the Eastern Shore of Maryland--supplied by cattle of the best
English stock, imported for the purpose, pours its rich donations
My Bondage and My Freedom |
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 Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: guilty one. I alone knew that there was neither premeditation nor any
of the aggravating circumstances on which he was sentenced to death. A
hundred times I thought of betraying myself to save him; a hundred
times a horrible and necessary restraint stopped the words upon my
lips. Undoubtedly, my presence near the scene had contributed to give
him the odious, infamous, ignoble courage of a murderer. Were it not
for me, he would have fled. I had formed that soul, trained that mind,
enlarged that heart; I knew it; he was incapable of cowardice or
meanness. Do justice to that involuntarily guilty arm, do justice to
him, whom God, in his mercy, has allowed to sleep in his quiet grave,
where you have wept for him, suspecting, it may be, the extenuating
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