| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: "If I ever do, Pat, you'll need to be carried off," replied
Stewart. "Just now I'm politely inviting you and your deputy
sheriffs to leave."
"We'll go; but we're comin' back one of these days, an' when we
do we'll put you in irons."
"Hawe, if you've got it in that bad for me, come over here in the
corral and let's fight it out."
"I'm an officer, an' I don't fight outlaws an' sich except when I
hev to make arrests."
"Officer! You're a disgrace to the county. If you ever did get
irons on me you'd take me some place out of sight, shoot me, and
The Light of Western Stars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Message by Honore de Balzac: troubled him that he was powerless to utter a single word to
thank me, for of my wish to serve him he had no doubt. He looked
wistfully at me for a moment, then his eyelids drooped in token
of farewell, and his head sank, and he died. His death was the
only fatal accident caused by the overturn.
"But it was partly his own fault," the coachman said to me.
At La Charite, I executed the poor fellow's dying wishes. His
mother was away from home, which in a manner was fortunate for
me. Nevertheless, I had to assuage the grief of an old woman-
servant, who staggered back at the tidings of her young master's
death, and sank half-dead into a chair when she saw the blood-
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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 Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: into the cedars toward the corral. Swift and soundless as a fitting
shadow Mescal vanished in the gloom. The Mormon stole with wary,
unhurried steps back to his bed and rolled in his blankets.
Hare rose unsteadily, wavering in the hot grip of a moment that seemed to
have but one issue--the killing of Holderness. Mescal would soon be upon
Silvermane, far out on the White Sage trail, and this time there would be
no sand-strip to trap her. But Hare could not kill the rustler while he
was sleeping; and he could not awaken him without revealing to his men
the escape of the girl. Hare stood there on the bench, gazing down on
the blanketed Holderness. Why not kill him now, ending forever his
power, and trust to chance for the rest? No, no! Hare flung the
The Heritage of the Desert |
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 Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: moment of temptation, and then meet it with the weapons furnished
by the Divine armory. Ithuriel did not spit the toad on his spear,
you remember, but touched him with it, and the blasted angel took
the sad glories of his true shape. If he had shown fight then, the
fair spirits would have known how to deal with him.
That all spasmodic cerebral action is an evil is not perfectly
clear. Men get fairly intoxicated with music, with poetry, with
religious excitement, oftenest with love. Ninon de l'Enclos said
she was so easily excited that her soup intoxicated her, and
convalescents have been made tipsy by a beef-steak.
There are forms and stages of alcoholic exaltation which, in
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
