| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: were growing up to her,--and morning glories,--and beautiful
green tangled things of which he did not know the name.
And the sight of the pretty lizards, puffing their crimson
pouches in the sun, or undulating athwart epitaphs, and shifting
their color when approached, from emerald to ashen-gray;--the
caravans of the ants, journeying to and from tiny chinks in the
masonry;--the bees gathering honey from the crimson blossoms of
the crete-de-coq, whose radicles sought sustenance, perhaps from
human dust, in the decay of generations:--all that rich life of
graves summoned up fancies of Resurrection, Nature's
resurrection-work--wondrous transformations of flesh, marvellous
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: persuasively. "He came to doctor our mare
when she ate green corn and swelled up most as
big as the water-tank. He petted her just like
you do your cats. I couldn't understand much
he said, for he don't talk any English, but he
kept patting her and groaning as if he had the
pain himself, and saying, 'There now, sister,
that's easier, that's better!'"
Lou and Oscar laughed, and Emil giggled
delightedly and looked up at his sister.
O Pioneers! |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: " 'You are very keen about it, it seems to me,' said Matifat. 'I never
knew a banker yet that paid less than fifty per cent. Ah, if it were
only a matter of ten per cent of loss--' added the retired man of
drugs.
" 'Well, will you take fifteen?' asked Gigonnet.
" 'You are very keen about it, it seems to me,' said Matifat.
" 'Good-night.'
" 'Will you take twelve?'
" 'Done,' said Gigonnet.
"Before night two millions had been bought up in the names of the
three chance-united confederates, and posted by du Tillet to the debit
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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 In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: far more near the average, I will describe the soil and productions
of Fakarava. The surface of that narrow strip is for the more part
of broken coral lime-stone, like volcanic clinkers, and
excruciating to the naked foot; in some atolls, I believe, not in
Fakarava, it gives a fine metallic ring when struck. Here and
there you come upon a bank of sand, exceeding fine and white, and
these parts are the least productive. The plants (such as they
are) spring from and love the broken coral, whence they grow with
that wonderful verdancy that makes the beauty of the atoll from the
sea. The coco-palm in particular luxuriates in that stern SOLUM,
striking down his roots to the brackish, percolated water, and
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