| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: widow. "He dragged me quite to the window."
Douglas glanced amusedly first at the five- foot-six widow and
then at the helpless, red- haired urchin by her side, but he made
no comment beyond offering a chair to each of the women.
"Our choir practice had to be entirely discontinued," declared
Miss Perkins sourly, as she accepted the proffered chair,
adjusted her skirts for a stay, and glanced defiantly at the
parson, who had dutifully seated himself near the table.
"I am sure _I_ have as true an ear as anybody," whimpered the
widow, with an injured air; "but I defy ANY ONE to lead 'What
Shall the Harvest Be?' to an accompaniment like THAT." She
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: believe my eyes sooner than the tongues of women and idle men?"
"They say that the body is being taken to Almayer's compound,"
said Abdulla. "If you want to go there you must go before the
Dutch arrive here. Go late. It should not be said that we have
been seen inside that man's enclosure lately."
Reshid assented to the truth of this last remark and left his
uncle's side. He leaned against the lintel of the big doorway
and looked idly across the courtyard through the open gate on to
the main road of the settlement. It lay empty, straight, and
yellow under the flood of light. In the hot noontide the smooth
trunks of palm trees, the outlines of the houses, and away there
Almayer's Folly |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: hindrance to respiration, prevents biting; and when attached it serves
to rob the horse of opportunity for vice.[5]
[4] Cf. "Econ." xi. 18; Aristoph. "Clouds," 32.
[5] Or, "prevents the horse from carrying out vicious designs."
Again, care should be taken to tie the horse up with the halter above
his head. A horse's natural instinct, in trying to rid himself of
anything that irritates the face, is to toss up his head, and by this
upward movement, if so tied, he only slackens the chain instead of
snapping it. In rubbing the horse down, the groom should begin with
the head and mane; as until the upper parts are clean, it is vain to
cleanse the lower; then, as regards the rest of the body, first brush
On Horsemanship |
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 Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: She hobbled away, shrieking. What else could he do? Must a dog let
himself be killed by his mother?
As for his brothers--was it fair that two of them should fall foul
of him about the rabbit which he had tracked and caught and killed?
He would have shared it with them, if they had asked him, for they
ran behind him on the trail. But when they both set their teeth in
his neck, there was nothing to do but to lay them both out: which he
did. Afterward he was willing enough to make friends, but they
bristled and cursed whenever he came near them.
It was the same with everybody. If he went out for a walk on the
beach, Vigneau's dogs or Simard's dogs regarded it as an insult, and
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