| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: while!"
"Oh, you do, do you! Sure! I talk all the time! And I'm just a business
man--oh sure!--I'm no Ph.D. Iike Littlefield, and no poet, and I haven't
anything to spring! Well, let me tell you, just the other day your darn Chum
Frink comes up to me at the club begging to know what I thought about the
Springfield school-bond issue. And who told him? I did! You bet your life I
told him! Little me! I certainly did! He came up and asked me, and I told
him all about it! You bet! And he was darn glad to listen to me and--Duty as
a host! I guess I know my duty as a host and let me tell you--"
In fact, the Orville Joneses were invited.
II
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: the pallet, holding his head in her arms with the ferocity of a
watch-dog, if any of them touched the body. There was no
meekness, no sorrow, in her face; the stuff out of which
murderers are made, instead. All the time Haley and the woman
were laying straight the limbs and cleaning the cell, Deborah
sat still, keenly watching the Quaker's face. Of all the crowd
there that day, this woman alone had not spoken to her,--only
once or twice had put some cordial to her lips. After they all
were gone, the woman, in the same still, gentle way, brought a
vase of wood-leaves and berries, and placed it by the pallet,
then opened the narrow window. The fresh air blew in, and swept
Life in the Iron-Mills |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tom Grogan by F. Hopkinson Smith: currying and feeding something alive and warm and comfortable, was
so delightful to the Swede that he had given up the sea for a
while. He had felt that he could ship again at anytime, the water
was so near. As the months went by, however, he, too, gradually
fell under the spell of Tom's influence. She reminded him of the
great Norse women he had read about in his boyhood. Besides all
this, he was loyal and true to the woman who had befriended him,
and who had so far appreciated his devotion to her interests as to
promote him from hostler and driver to foreman of the stables.
Nilsson knew Quigg by sight, for he had seen him walking home with
Jennie from church. His knowledge of English was slight, but it
|
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 Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: My person, notwithstanding that my thoughts
Remained within me downcast and abashed.
I had moved on, and followed willingly
The footsteps of my Master, and we both
Already showed how light of foot we were,
When unto me he said: "Cast down thine eyes;
'Twere well for thee, to alleviate the way,
To look upon the bed beneath thy feet."
As, that some memory may exist of them,
Above the buried dead their tombs in earth
Bear sculptured on them what they were before;
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
