| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: Meeting matters, suddenly asked: "Is this true that I hear,
Henry,--that thy son De Courcy keeps company with one of the Alison
girls?"
"Who says that?" Henry asked, in a sharp voice.
"Why, it's the common talk! Surely, thee's heard of it before?"
"No!"
Henry set his lips together in a manner which Abraham understood.
Considering that he had fully performed his duty, he said no more.
That evening, Sylvia, who had been gently thrumming to herself at
the window, began singing "Bonnie Peggie Alison." Her father
looked at De Courcy, who caught his glance, then lowered his eyes,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: it. For, given that some state or other is rich in timber for
shipbuilding, where is it to find a market[12] for the product except
by persuading the ruler of the sea? Or, suppose the wealth of some
state or other to consist of iron, or may be of bronze,[13] or of
linen yarn, where will it find a market except by permission of the
supreme maritime power? Yet these are the very things, you see, which
I need for my ships. Timber I must have from one, and from another
iron, from a third bronze, from a fourth linen yarn, from a fifth wax,
etc. Besides which they will not suffer their antagonists in those
parts[14] to carry these products elsewhither, or they will cease to
use the sea. Accordingly I, without one stroke of labour, extract from
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: orter look.
"Prentiss McMakin came to me that day," she
was saying, "with an appeal--I hardly know how
to tell you." She broke off.
"Go ahead, Lucy," says Colonel Tom's voice.
"He was insulting," she said. "He had been drink-
ing. He wanted me to--to--he appealed to me to
run off with him.
"I was furious--NATURALLY." Her voice changed
as she said it enough so you could feel how furious
Miss Lucy could get. She was like her brother
|
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 Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.
When the eyes of the Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral
image (which, with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to
sustain its role, stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was
seen to be convulsed, in the first moment with a strong shudder
either of terror or distaste; but, in the next, his brow reddened
with rage.
"Who dares,"--he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood
near him--"who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery?
Seize him and unmask him--that we may know whom we have to hang, at
sunrise, from the battlements!"
|
