| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain: and save me--I'll worship the very ground you walk on!"
We turned in and soothed him down and told him we would
plan for him and help him, and he needn't be so afeard;
and so by and by he got to feeling kind of comfortable again,
and unscrewed his heelplates and held up his di'monds
this way and that, admiring them and loving them;
and when the light struck into them they WAS beautiful,
sure; why, they seemed to kind of bust, and snap fire
out all around. But all the same I judged he was a fool.
If I had been him I would a handed the di'monds to them
pals and got them to go ashore and leave me alone.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: to one. Gale made a note of the fact that for some little time he
had not heard the unmistakable report of Jim Lash's automatic.
Then ensued a long interval in which the desert silence seemed
to recover its grip. The .405 ripped it asunder--spang--spang
--spang. Gale fancied he heard yells. There were a few pattering
shots still farther down the trail. Gale had an uneasy conviction
that Rojas and some of his band might go straight to the waterhole.
It would be hard to dislodge even a few men from that retreat.
There seemed a lull in the battle. Gale ventured to stand high, and
screened behind choyas, he swept the three-quarter circle of lava
with his glass. In the distance he saw horses, but no riders.
Desert Gold |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from King James Bible: written,
LUK 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
LUK 4:19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
LUK 4:20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister,
and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were
fastened on him.
LUK 4:21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture
fulfilled in your ears.
King James Bible |
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 Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: was at moments natural; yet it was only with the child that she had
conceived and managed to pursue a scheme of conduct. Archie was to be a
great man and a good; a minister if possible, a saint for certain. She
tried to engage his mind upon her favourite books, Rutherford's LETTERS,
Scougalls GRACE ABOUNDING, and the like. It was a common practice of
hers (and strange to remember now) that she would carry the child to the
Deil's Hags, sit with him on the Praying Weaver's stone, and talk of the
Covenanters till their tears ran down. Her view of history was wholly
artless, a design in snow and ink; upon the one side, tender innocents
with psalms upon their lips; upon the other, the persecutors, booted,
bloody-minded, flushed with wine: a suffering Christ, a raging
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