| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: above one or two instances under the age of six, even in a part
of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest proficiency in that
art.
I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve
years old, is no saleable commodity, and even when they come to
this age, they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds
and half a crown at most, on the exchange; which cannot turn to
account either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of
nutriments and rags having been at least four times that value.
I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I
hope will not be liable to the least objection.
A Modest Proposal |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: tender flesh, driving its way deep into the yielding body. He saw
the ridiculous doll drop from its owner's arms to lie sprawled
and pathetic beside the quivering body of the little girl.
The Killer shuddered, scowling at the inanimate iron and
wood of the spear as though they constituted a sentient being
endowed with a malignant mind.
Korak wondered what the girl would do were he to drop suddenly
from the tree to her side. Most likely she would scream
and run away. Then would come the men of the village with
spears and guns and set upon him. They would either kill him
or drive him away. A lump rose in the boy's throat. He craved
The Son of Tarzan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: truly the more picturesque. In a thousand towns and different
epochs I might have had occasion to behold the cowardice and
carnage of street fighting; where else, but only there and then,
could I have enjoyed a view of Coleman (the intermittent
despot) walking meditatively up hill in a quiet part of town,
with a very rolling gait, and slapping gently his great thigh?
Minora Canamus. This historic figure stalks silently through a
corner of the San Francisco of my memory: the rest is bric-a-
brac, the reminiscences of a vagrant sketcher. My delight was
much in slums. Little Italy was a haunt of mine; there I would
look in at the windows of small eating-shops, transported
|
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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: began to fasten the hatches, to keep them down that were below;
when the other boat and their men, entering at the forechains,
secured the forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle which went down
into the cook-room, making three men they found there prisoners.
When this was done, and all safe upon deck, the captain ordered the
mate, with three men, to break into the round-house, where the new
rebel captain lay, who, having taken the alarm, had got up, and
with two men and a boy had got firearms in their hands; and when
the mate, with a crow, split open the door, the new captain and his
men fired boldly among them, and wounded the mate with a musket
ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two more of the men, but
Robinson Crusoe |
