| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moral Emblems by Robert Louis Stevenson: Meanwhile upon the deep afar
Robin the brave was waging war,
With other tarry desperadoes
About the latitude of Barbadoes.
He knew no touch of craven fear;
His voice was thunder in the cheer;
First, from the main-to'-gallan' high,
The skulking merchantmen to spy -
The first to bound upon the deck,
The last to leave the sinking wreck.
His hand was steel, his word was law,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: confidently looked forward, as rendering the destruction of Bruce
almost inevitable, were now turned with fatal effect against
himself. His great superiority of numbers cumbered and impeded
his movements. Thrust by the double assault, and by the peculiar
nature of the ground, into such narrow room as the pass afforded,
and driven to fury by finding themselves cut to pieces in detail,
without power of resistance, the men of Lorn fled towards Loch
Eitive, where a bridge thrown over the Awe, and supported upon
two immense rocks, known by the name of the Rocks of Brandir,
formed the solitary communication between the side of the river
where the battle took place and the country of Lorn. Their
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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 The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: accompanied the Williamson expedition in the hope he might rescue her.
"How long have you been out?" asked Jim.
"About four weeks now," answered Christy. "My betrothed was captured five
weeks ago yesterday. I joined Williamson's band, which made up at Short Creek
to take the trail of the flying Chippewas, in the hope I might find her. But
not a trace! The expedition fell upon a band of redskins over on the
Walhonding, and killed nearly all of them. I learned from a wounded Indian
that a renegade had made off with a white girl about a week previous. Perhaps
it was poor Lucy."
Jim related the circumstances of his own capture by Jim Girty, the rescue of
Nell, and Kate's sad fate.
The Spirit of the Border |
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 Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: move that you appoint Jack Halliday to get up there and auction off
that sack of gilt twenty-dollar pieces, and give the result to the
right man--the man whom Hadleyburg delights to honour--Edward
Richards."
This was received with great enthusiasm, the dog taking a hand
again; the saddler started the bids at a dollar, the Brixton folk
and Barnum's representative fought hard for it, the people cheered
every jump that the bids made, the excitement climbed moment by
moment higher and higher, the bidders got on their mettle and grew
steadily more and more daring, more and more determined, the jumps
went from a dollar up to five, then to ten, then to twenty, then
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
