| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Master Key by L. Frank Baum: There was no response. He extended the tube and, as he pressed the
button, described a semi-circle with the instrument. Immediately the
tall guardsmen toppled over like so many tenpins, and Rob stepped
across their bodies and penetrated to the reception room, where a
brilliant assemblage awaited, in hushed and anxious groups, for
opportunity to obtain audience with the king.
"I hope his Majesty isn't busy," said Rob to a solemn-visaged official
who confronted him. "I want to have a little talk with him."
"I--I--ah--beg pardon!" exclaimed the astounded master of ceremonies.
"What name, please?"
"Oh, never mind my name," replied Rob, and pushing the gentleman aside
The Master Key |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Options by O. Henry: bright blue clothes, yellow shoes, and a bow tie made of the same
cloth as his shirt.
My rival No.2 was Bud Cunningham, whose services had been engaged by a
ranch near Paloma to assist in compelling refractory cattle to keep
within the bounds of decorum and order. Bud was the only cowboy off
the stage that I ever saw who looked like one on it. He wore the
sombrero, the chaps, and the handkerchief tied at the back of his
neck.
Twice a week Bud rode in from the Val Verde Ranch to sup at the
Parisian Restaurant. He rode a many-high-handed Kentucky horse at a
tremendously fast lope, which animal he would rein up so suddenly
Options |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: "Sabina...Sabina..."
She flew from one table to the other, counting out handfuls of small
change, giving orders to Anna through the "slide," helping the men with
their heavy coats, always with that magical child air about her, that
delightful sense of perpetually attending a party.
"How is the Frau Lehmann?" the women would whisper.
"She feels rather low, but as well as can be expected," Sabina would
answer, nodding confidentially.
Frau Lehmann's bad time was approaching. Anna and her friends referred to
it as her "journey to Rome," and Sabina longed to ask questions, yet, being
ashamed of her ignorance, was silent, trying to puzzle it out for herself.
|
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 Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: devoted to the lepers." Molokai - "MOLOKAI AHINA," the "grey,"
lofty, and most desolate island - along all its northern side
plunges a front of precipice into a sea of unusual profundity.
This range of cliff is, from east to west, the true end and
frontier of the island. Only in one spot there projects into the
ocean a certain triangular and rugged down, grassy, stony, windy,
and rising in the midst into a hill with a dead crater: the whole
bearing to the cliff that overhangs it somewhat the same relation
as a bracket to a wall. With this hint you will now be able to
pick out the leper station on a map; you will be able to judge how
much of Molokai is thus cut off between the surf and precipice,
|
