| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: countess sitting peacefully on a bench, beneath a poplar now
yellowing, the poor lover would sit at her feet, looking into her eyes
as long as she would let him, hoping ever that the light that was in
them would become intelligent. Sometimes the thought deluded him that
he saw those hard immovable rays softening, vibrating, living, and he
cried out,--
"Stephanie! Stephanie! thou hearest me, thou seest me!"
But she listened to that cry as to a noise, the soughing of the wind
in the tree-tops, or the lowing of the cow on the back of which she
climbed. Then the colonel would wring his hands in despair,--despair
that was new each day.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: "I'll have that doctor hanged."
"Marse Tom, she don't WANT him hanged. She - "
"Well, then, I'll have him boiled in oil."
"But she don't WANT him boiled. I - "
"Oh, very well, very well, I only want to please her; I'll have him
skinned."
"Why, SHE don't want him skinned; it would break her heart. Now -
"
"Woman, this is perfectly unreasonable. What in the nation DOES
she want?"
"Marse Tom, if you would only be a little patient, and not fly off
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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 In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: was no longer speaking, he was doing worse - he was building a
copra-house. The king was touched in his chief interests; revenue
and prerogative were threatened. He considered besides (and some
think with him) that trade is incompatible with the missionary
claims. 'Tuppoti mitonary think "good man": very good. Tuppoti
he think "cobra": no good. I send him away ship.' Such was his
abrupt history of the evangelist in Apemama.
Similar deportations are common: 'I send him away ship' is the
epitaph of not a few, his majesty paying the exile's fare to the
next place of call. For instance, being passionately fond of
European food, he has several times added to his household a white
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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 Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: "with his great host of noble knights and men-at-arms
and squires and lackeys and sumpter beasts. Open in
the name of the good right arm of Sir Norman of Torn."
"What means this, my son?" said the old man as
Norman of Torn dismounted within the ballium.
The youth narrated the events of the morning, con-
cluding with, "These, then, be my men, father; and
together we shall fare forth upon the highways and
into the byways of England, to collect from the rich
English pigs that living which you have ever taught me
was owing us."
The Outlaw of Torn |
