| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: crackled merrily in the frosty air; the yells and songs of the
carousers were echoed back from the opposite shore of the river.
The chill atmosphere, the lowering sky, and the approaching night
could not touch the blood of that wild crowd. Their faces glowed
and their eyes sparkled; they were ready for any deviltry which
their lord might suggest.
Some began to amuse themselves by flinging the clean-picked bones
of deer and hare along the glassy ice of the Volga. Prince Alexis,
perceiving this diverson, cried out in ecstasy,--
"Oh, by St. Nicholas the Miracle-Worker, I'll give you better sport
than that, ye knaves! Here's the very place for a reisak,--do
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: Crit. Then which are the arts you would counsel us to engage in?
Soc. Well, we shall not be ashamed, I hope, to imitate the kings of
Persia?[2] That monarch, it is said, regards amongst the noblest and
most necessary pursuits two in particular, which are the arts of
husbandry and war, and in these two he takes the strongest interest.
[2] "It won't make us blush actually to take a leaf out of the great
king's book." As to the Greek text at this point see the
commentators, and also a note by Mr. H. Richers in the "Classical
Review," x. 102.
What! (Critobulus exclaimed); do you, Socrates, really believe that
the king of Persia pays a personal regard to husbandry, along with all
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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 Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: where he began the practice of his profession. He began his
writing career early; in 1896 he published Impressions of a Stu-
dent in a weekly of Mexico City. This was followed by numer-
ous sketches and short stories, and in 1911 by his first novel,
Andres Perez, maderista.
Like most of the young Liberals, he supported Francisco I.
Madero's uprising, which overthrew the dictatorship of Porfirio
Diaz, and in 1911 was made Director of Education of the State
of Jalisco. After Madero's assassination, he joined the army of
Pancho Villa as doctor, and his knowledge of the Revolution
was acquired at firsthand. When the counterrevolutionary
The Underdogs |
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 Out of Time's Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs: across the sea toward the dark, distant line that meant for
him comparative freedom and possibly reunion with his comrades.
The girl always went with him, standing at his side and watching the
stern expression on his face with just a tinge of sadness on her own.
"You are not happy," she said once.
"I should be over there with my men," he replied. "I do not know
what may have happened to them."
"I want you to be happy," she said quite simply; "but I should
be very lonely if you went away and left me here."
He put his hand on her shoulder. "I would not do that, little
girl," he said gently. "If you cannot go with me, I shall not go.
Out of Time's Abyss |
