| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: instantly put it into execution; thought, inspiration, and
action, as in a flash, were one. He must make the other turn
aside his deadly gaze, and instantly he roared out in a voice
that stunned his own ears: "Strike, bos'n! Strike, quick!"
Taken by surprise, and thinking, doubtless, that another enemy
stood behind him, the pirate swung around like a flash with his
pistol leveled against the blank boarding. Equally upon the
instant he saw the trick that had been played upon him and in a
second flash had turned again. The turn and return had occupied
but a moment of time, but that moment, thanks to the readiness of
his own invention, had undoubtedly saved Mainwaring's life. As
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Glasses by Henry James: hat and the flutter of her crape, with her eternal idleness, her
eternal happiness, her absence of moods and mysteries and the
pretty presentation of her feet, which especially now in the
supported slope of her posture occupied with their imperceptibility
so much of the foreground--I was reminded anew, I say, how our
young lady dazzled by some art that the enumeration of her merits
didn't explain and that the mention of her lapses didn't affect.
Where she was amiss nothing counted, and where she was right
everything did. I say she was wanting in mystery, but that after
all was her secret. This happened to be my first chance of
introducing her to my mother, who had not much left in life but 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 Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: folk and the wounded to die at leisure. But when morning came, and
they knew by my skin that I was no Indian, and by my speech that I
was no Spaniard, they began threatening me with torments, till I
confessed that I was an Englishman, and one of Oxenham's crew. At
that says the leader, 'Then you shall to Lima, to hang by the side
of your captain the pirate;' by which I first knew that my poor
captain was certainly gone; but alas for me! the priest steps in
and claims me for his booty, calling me Lutheran, heretic, and
enemy of God; and so, to make short a sad story, to the Inquisition
at Cartagena I went, where what I suffered, gentlemen, were as
disgustful for you to hear, as unmanly for me to complain of; but
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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 Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather: stroll at Bedford Square and to ask whether
Miss Burgoyne would let him take her to the
theatre. But he did not go so far. When he
reached the Abbey, he turned back and
crossed Westminster Bridge and sat down to
watch the trails of smoke behind the Houses
of Parliament catch fire with the sunset.
The slender towers were washed by a rain of
golden light and licked by little flickering
flames; Somerset House and the bleached
gray pinnacles about Whitehall were floated
Alexander's Bridge |
