| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: the fields, his harness hanging to him, wolves at his heels.
But the groom's movement had given Pavel an idea.
They were within a few miles of their village now.
The only sledge left out of six was not very far behind them,
and Pavel's middle horse was failing. Beside a frozen pond
something happened to the other sledge; Peter saw it plainly.
Three big wolves got abreast of the horses, and the horses
went crazy. They tried to jump over each other, got tangled
up in the harness, and overturned the sledge.
When the shrieking behind them died away, Pavel realized
that he was alone upon the familiar road. `They still come?'
My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: was, there are remaining only the bones of the wasted body, as they may be
called, as in the case of small islands, all the richer and softer parts of
the soil having fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the land being left.
But in the primitive state of the country, its mountains were high hills
covered with soil, and the plains, as they are termed by us, of Phelleus
were full of rich earth, and there was abundance of wood in the mountains.
Of this last the traces still remain, for although some of the mountains
now only afford sustenance to bees, not so very long ago there were still
to be seen roofs of timber cut from trees growing there, which were of a
size sufficient to cover the largest houses; and there were many other high
trees, cultivated by man and bearing abundance of food for cattle.
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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 Virginian by Owen Wister: Their eyes followed my narrative: the New Yorkers, because such
events do not happen upon the shores of the Hudson; Mrs. Henry,
because she was my hostess; Miss Wood followed for whatever her
reasons were--I couldn't see her eyes; rather, I FELT her
listening intently to the deeds and dangers of the man she didn't
care to tame. But it was the eyes of the Judge and the missionary
which I saw riveted upon me indeed until the end; and they
forthwith made plain their quite dissimilar opinions.
Judge Henry struck the table lightly with his fist. "I knew it!"
And he leaned back in his chair with a face of contentment. He
had trusted his man, and his man had proved worthy.
The Virginian |
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 A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain: giving some the headache, others St. Vitus's dance,
and the rest the blind staggers.
An American village at ten o'clock on a summer Sunday is
the quietest and peacefulest and holiest thing in nature;
but it is a pretty different thing half an hour later.
Mr. Poe's poem of the "Bells" stands incomplete to this day;
but it is well enough that it is so, for the public reciter
or "reader" who goes around trying to imitate the sounds
of the various sorts of bells with his voice would find
himself "up a stump" when he got to the church-bell--
as Joseph Addison would say. The church is always trying
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