| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: made yer cut out the show to-day? Was it because you didn't want
ter ride afore folks what knowed yer? Ride afore HIM, mebbe?"
"HIM?" Her face was white. Jim feared she might swoon. "You
don't mean that he was----"
"Oh, no," he answered, quickly, "of course not. Parsons don't
come to places like this one. I was only figurin' that yer
didn't want OTHER folks to see yer and to tell him how you was
ridin'." She did not answer.
"Was that it, Poll?" he urged.
"I don't know." She stared into space.
"Was it?"
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: another type," she said; she pronounced the word in the French manner.
"This is a different outline, my uncle, a different character,
from that of your own daughters. This, Felix," she went on,
"is very much more what we have always thought of as the American type."
The young girl, during this exposition, was smiling askance at every
one in turn, and at Felix out of turn. "I find only one type here!"
cried Felix, laughing. "The type adorable!"
This sally was received in perfect silence, but Felix, who learned all
things quickly, had already learned that the silences frequently observed
among his new acquaintances were not necessarily restrictive or resentful.
It was, as one might say, the silence of expectation, of modesty.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Bosh, my dear man," replied Professor Maxon. "He knew
nothing of treasures, or money, or the need or value of either.
I tell you the workshop was opened, and the inner campong
as well by some one who knew the value of money and wanted
that chest, but why they should have released the creatures
from the inner enclosure is beyond me."
"And I tell you Professor Maxon that it could have been
none other than Number Thirteen," insisted von Horn.
"Did I not myself see him leading his eleven monsters
as easily as a captain commands his company? The fellow
is brighter than we have imagined. He has learned much
The Monster Men |
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 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: and my nurse having set me down, he and I being close together,
near some dwarf apple trees, I must needs show my wit, by a silly
allusion between him and the trees, which happens to hold in
their language as it does in ours. Whereupon, the malicious
rogue, watching his opportunity, when I was walking under one of
them, shook it directly over my head, by which a dozen apples,
each of them near as large as a Bristol barrel, came tumbling
about my ears; one of them hit me on the back as I chanced to
stoop, and knocked me down flat on my face; but I received no
other hurt, and the dwarf was pardoned at my desire, because I
had given the provocation.
Gulliver's Travels |
