| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: particularly pleasing to the fair sex, I believe," observed Alfred, smiling
rather grimly as he wound up his line.
"Would you mind being explicit?" she questioned.
Alfred had laughed and was about to answer when the whip-like crack of a rifle
came from the hillside. The echoes of the shot reverberated from hill to hill
and were finally lost far down the valley.
"What can that be?" exclaimed Alfred anxiously, recalling Colonel Zane's odd
manner when they were about to leave the house.
"I am not sure, but I think that is my turkey, unless Lew Wetzel happened to
miss his aim," said Betty, laughing. "And that is such an unprecedented thing
that it can hardly be considered. Turkeys are scarce this season. Jonathan
Betty Zane |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: CLAIRVOYANTE, and was wrapped in rich furs.
'What do you think of that face?' he said; 'is it truthful?'
I examined it carefully. It seemed to me the face of some one who
had a secret, but whether that secret was good or evil I could not
say. Its beauty was a beauty moulded out of many mysteries - the
beauty, in fact, which is psychological, not plastic - and the
faint smile that just played across the lips was far too subtle to
be really sweet.
'Well,' he cried impatiently, 'what do you say?'
'She is the Gioconda in sables,' I answered. 'Let me know all
about her.'
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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 Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: of worldlings separate, neither sickness abate, nor age abolish."
And next I should point them to those pages in Mr. Gladstone's
"Juventus Mundi," where he describes the ideal training of a Greek
youth in Homer's days; and say--There: that is an education fit
for a really civilised man, even though he never saw a book in his
life; the full, proportionate, harmonious educing-that is,
bringing out and developing--of all the faculties of his body,
mind, and heart, till he becomes at once a reverent yet self-
assured, a graceful and yet a valiant, an able and yet an eloquent
personage.
And if any should say to me--"But what has this to do with
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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 Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: clothed and armed by Western Europe, which have
attempted its undoing. The mere fact of continued war has,
of course, made progress in the solution of the economic
problem almost impossible, but the fact that the economic
problem was unsolved, must have made war
impossible, if it were not that the instinct of the people was
definitely against Russian or foreign invaders. Consider for
one moment the military position.
Although the enthusiasm for the Polish war began to subside
(even among the Communists) as soon as the Poles had
been driven back from Kiev to their own frontiers, although
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