| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: no hobo. But I didn't want to disappoint that
feller and spoil his book fur him. So I tells him
things. Things not overly truthful, but very
full of crime. About a year afterward I was into
one of these here Andrew Carnegie lib'aries with
the names of the old-time presidents all chiselled
along the top and I seen the hull dern thing in print.
He said of me the same thing I have said about
them yeggmen. If all he met joshed that feller
the same as me, that book must of been what you
might call misleading in spots.
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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 Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: to call the interior, we realized that any instant some new and
terrible danger might confront us. The line was made fast to a
small tree, and at the same time I had the stern anchor dropped.
As soon as the boche and his guard were aboard again, I called
all hands on deck, including von Schoenvorts, and there I
explained to them that the time had come for us to enter into
some sort of an agreement among ourselves that would relieve
us of the annoyance and embarrassment of being divided into two
antagonistic parts--prisoners and captors. I told them that it
was obvious our very existence depended upon our unity of action,
that we were to all intent and purpose entering a new world as
The Land that Time Forgot |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: afforded by your charming letter. I get a good few such; how few
that please me at all, you would be surprised to learn - or have a
singularly just idea of the dulness of our race; how few that
please me as yours did, I can tell you in one word - NONE. I am no
great kirkgoer, for many reasons - and the sermon's one of them,
and the first prayer another, but the chief and effectual reason is
the stuffiness. I am no great kirkgoer, says I, but when I read
yon letter of yours, I thought I would like to sit under ye. And
then I saw ye were to send me a bit buik, and says I, I'll wait for
the bit buik, and then I'll mebbe can read the man's name, and
anyway I'll can kill twa birds wi' ae stane. And, man! the buik
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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 Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: shotgun had been on board, but had gone down with the sinking of
the junk. The ambergris had been cut into two lumps, and would be
found in a couple of old flour-sacks in the stern of the boat in
which he and his men had come ashore. They were all armed with
their little hatchets. He thought two of the men carried knives
as well. There was neither pistol nor revolver among them.
"It seems to me," said Wilbur, "that we've got the long end."
"We catch um boss, too!" said Charlie, pointing to Hoang.
"And we are better armed," assented Moran. "We've got the
cutting-in spades."
"And the revolver, if it will shoot any further than it will
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