| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: sure and easy demonstration; and he and others now hold what may be
called a contact theory, which, while it takes into account the
action of the metals, also embraces the chemical phenomena of the
circuit. Helmholtz, I believe, was the first to give the contact
theory this new form, in his celebrated essay, Ueber die Erhaltung
der Kraft, p. 45.
Chapter 8.
Researches on frictional electricity: induction: conduction:
specific inductive capacity: theory of contiguous particles.
The burst of power which had filled the four preceding years with an
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: Like some delicate thing suddenly exposed to blasting heat, the
girl wilted; her head dropped, and into her white, wasted cheeks
crept the red of shame.
Venters would have given anything to recall that question. It
seemed so different--his thought when spoken. Yet her shame
established in his mind something akin to the respect he had
strangely been hungering to feel for her.
"D--n that question!--forget it!" he cried, in a passion of pain
for her and anger at himself. "But once and for all--tell me--I
know it, yet I want to hear you say so--you couldn't help
yourself?"
Riders of the Purple Sage |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: "Show 'em in here, Annie," she commanded, with a wave of the
huge shears. "I'll teach 'em to interrupt me when I've got my
hands in the bluing-water."
She bent over the table again, measuring with her keen eye. When
the three were ushered in a moment later, she looked up briefly
and nodded, then bent over the table again. But in that brief
moment she had the three marked, indexed and pigeonholed. If one
could have looked into that lightning mind of hers, one would
have found something like this:
"Hmm! What Ida Tarbell calls `Restless women.' Money, and
always have had it. Those hats were born in one of those
Emma McChesney & Co. |
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 Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: iota, answerable for their contents, more or less. And now, ye
generation of critics, who raise yourselves up as if it were
brazen serpents, to hiss with your tongues, and to smite with
your stings, bow yourselves down to your native dust, and
acknowledge that yours have been the thoughts of ignorance, and
the words of vain foolishness. Lo! ye are caught in your own
snare, and your own pit hath yawned for you. Turn, then, aside
from the task that is too heavy for you; destroy not your teeth
by gnawing a file; waste not your strength by spurning against a
castle wall; nor spend your breath in contending in swiftness
with a fleet steed; and let those weigh the Tales of my Landlord,
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