| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Street of Seven Stars by Mary Roberts Rinehart: Harmony, don't avoid me. I'm not a cad. I'll let you alone."
There was only time for a glance of understanding between them,
of promise from Peter, of acceptance from the girl. When Anna
Gates entered the kitchen she found Harmony peeling potatoes and
Peter filling up an already overfed stove.
That night, during that darkest hour before the dawn when the
thrifty city fathers of the old town had shut off the street
lights because two hours later the sun would rise and furnish
light that cost the taxpayers nothing, the Portier's wife
awakened.
The room was very silent, too silent. On those rare occasions
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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 Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: said Naab, with a smile." I hardly think it's fair. But the fact is no
women are buried here. Some graves are of men I fished out of the river;
others of those who drifted here, and who were killed or died keeping
their secrets. I've numbered those unknown graves and have kept a
description of the men, so, if the chance ever comes, I may tell some one
where a father or brother lies buried. Five sons of mine, not one of
whom died a natural death, found graves here--God rest them! Here's the
grave of Mescal's father, a Spaniard. He was an adventurer. I helped
him over in Nevada when he was ill; he came here with me, got well, and
lived nine years, and he died without speaking one word of himself or
telling his name."
The Heritage of the Desert |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: over it. The cow-puncher unburdened himself to the Governor; and the
Governor filled up his friend's glass with the Eastern whiskey, and
nodded his spectacles, and listened, and advised, and said he should have
done the same, and like the good Governor that he was, never remembered
he was Governor at all with political friends here who had begged a word
or two. He became just Dr. Barker again, the young hospital surgeon (the
hospital that now stood a ruin), and Lin was again his patient----Lin,
the sun-burnt free-lance of nineteen, reckless, engaging, disobedient,
his leg broken and his heart light, with no Jessamine or conscience to
rob his salt of its savor. While he now told his troubles, the quadrilles
fiddled away careless as ever, and the crack of the billiard balls
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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 Desert Gold by Zane Grey: windy, growing colder. A moan of wind in the mesquite was
occasionally pierced by the high-keyed yelp of a coyote. There
were lulls in which the silence seemed to be a thing of stifling.
encroaching substance--a thing that enveloped, buried the desert.
Judged by the great average of ideals and conventional standards
of life, Dick Gale was a starved, lonely, suffering, miserable
wretch. But in his case the judgment would have hit only externals,
would have missed the vital inner truth. For Gale was happy with
a kind of strange, wild glory in the privations, the pains, the perils,
and the silence and solitude to be endured on this desert land.
In the past he had not been of any use to himself or others;
Desert Gold |
