| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: mind would suffice. He had escaped capture because he could shoot
five-sixths of a second sooner than any sheriff or ranger in the
service, and because he rode a speckled roan horse that knew every
cow-path in the mesquite and pear thickets from San Antonio to
Matamoras.
Tonia Perez, the girl who loved the Cisco Kid, was half Carmen, half
Madonna, and the rest--oh, yes, a woman who is half Carmen and half
Madonna can always be something more--the rest, let us say, was
humming-bird. She lived in a grass-roofed /jacal/ near a little
Mexican settlement at the Lone Wolf Crossing of the Frio. With her
lived a father or grandfather, a lineal Aztec, somewhat less than a
Heart of the West |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: prismatic dust. If, the night before, I had allowed Lady Dudley to
depart alone, if I had then returned to Clochegourde, where, it may
be, Henriette awaited me, perhaps--perhaps Madame de Mortsauf might
not so cruelly have resolved to be my sister. But now she paid me many
ostentatious attentions,--playing her part vehemently for the very
purpose of not changing it. During breakfast she showed me a thousand
civilities, humiliating attentions, caring for me as though I were a
sick man whose fate she pitied.
"You were out walking early," said the count; "I hope you have brought
back a good appetite, you whose stomach is not yet destroyed."
This remark, which brought the smile of a sister to Henriette's lips,
The Lily of the Valley |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: "We have sailed many months, we have sailed many weeks,
(Four weeks to the month you may mark),
But never as yet ('tis your Captain who speaks)
Have we caught the least glimpse of a Snark!
"We have sailed many weeks, we have sailed many days,
(Seven days to the week I allow),
But a Snark, on the which we might lovingly gaze,
We have never beheld till now!
"Come, listen, my men, while I tell you again
The five unmistakable marks
By which you may know, wheresoever you go,
The Hunting of the Snark |
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 Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: "You don't understand," he cried, in a voice that was meant to
be great and resolute, and which broke. "You are blind and I can
see. Leave me alone!"
"Bogota! Put down that spade and come off the grass!"
The last order, grotesque in its urban familiarity, produced
a gust of anger. "I'll hurt you," he said, sobbing with emotion.
"By Heaven, I'll hurt you! Leave me alone!"
He began to run--not knowing clearly where to run. He ran
from the nearest blind man, because it was a horror to hit him. He
stopped, and then made a dash to escape from their closing ranks.
He made for where a gap was wide, and the men on either side, with
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