| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: copied from time to time on to linen paper. Says the poet Mr
Udd, "Being seated, to run through the region of the
spiritual world; I have had this advantage in books. To be
intoxicated by a single glass of wine; I have experienced this
pleasure when I have drunk the liquor of the esoteric doctrines." I
kept Homer's Iliad on my table through the summer, though I looked
at his page only now and then. Incessant labor with my hands, at
first, for I had my house to finish and my beans to hoe at the same
time, made more study impossible. Yet I sustained myself by the
prospect of such reading in future. I read one or two shallow books
of travel in the intervals of my work, till that employment made me
Walden |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx: other, the party of the allied royalists; of Order, and of the large
bourgeoisie.
At the inauguration of his presidency, Bonaparte forthwith framed a
ministry out of the party of Order, at whose head he placed Odillon
Barrot, be it noted, the old leader of the liberal wing of the
parliamentary bourgeoisie. Mr. Barrot had finally hunted down a seat in
the ministry, the spook of which had been pursuing him since 1830; and
what is more, he had the chairmanship in this ministry, although not, as
he had imagined under Louis Philippe, the promoted leader of the
parliamentary opposition, but with the commission to kill a parliament,
and, moreover, as an ally of all his arch enemies, the Jesuits and the
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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 Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: A good breeze had sprung up out of the northwest while the
conference in the cabin was in progress.
Cleggett was relieved that it was not from the south. There is
not much room to maneuver a schooner in a canal, and a breeze
from the south might have sailed the Jasper B. backwards towards
Parker's Beach, which would undoubtedly have given the enemy the
idea that Cleggett was retreating. The Jasper B.'s bow was
pointed south, and Cleggett was naturally anxious that she should
sail south.
At the outset a slight difficulty presented itself with regard to
the anchors--for although, as has been explained before, the
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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 Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs: he opened it until a narrow crack gave him a view of the
dimly lighted chamber beyond. Within all seemed asleep. The
mucker pushed the door still further open and stepped
within--so must he search every hut within the village until
he had found those he sought?
They were not there, and on silent feet that disturbed not
even the lightly slumbering curs the man passed out by the
front entrance into the street beyond.
Through a second and third hut he made his precarious
way. In the fourth a man stirred as Byrne stood upon the
opposite side of the room from the door--with a catlike
The Mucker |
