| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: for I was fearful lest our small caliber, steel-jacketed
bullets should, far from killing the beast, tend merely to
enrage it still further. But he misunderstood me, thinking
that I had ordered him to fire.
With the report of his rifle the tiger stopped short in
apparent surprise, then turned and bit savagely at its
shoulder for an instant, after which it wheeled again toward
Delcarte, issuing the most terrific roars and screams, and
launched itself, with incredible speed, toward the brave
fellow, who now stood his ground pumping bullets from his
automatic rifle as rapidly as the weapon would fire.
Lost Continent |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: and conversible, and we decided the future of France over hot wine,
until the state of the clock frightened us to rest. There were
four beds in the little upstairs room; and we slept six. But I had
a bed to myself, and persuaded them to leave the window open.
'HE, BOURGEOIS; IL EST CINQ HEURES!' was the cry that wakened me in
the morning (Saturday, September 28th). The room was full of a
transparent darkness, which dimly showed me the other three beds
and the five different nightcaps on the pillows. But out of the
window the dawn was growing ruddy in a long belt over the hill-
tops, and day was about to flood the plateau. The hour was
inspiriting; and there seemed a promise of calm weather, which was
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: detect, when the wind lulled and hearing was done away, the
finest imaginable sweet musical hum,--as of a distant hive in
May, which perchance was the sound of their thinking. They had no
idle thoughts, and no one without could see their work, for their
industry was not as in knots and excrescences embayed.
But I find it difficult to remember them. They fade irrevocably
out of my mind even now while I speak, and endeavor to recall
them and recollect myself. It is only after a long and serious
effort to recollect my best thoughts that I become again aware of
their cohabitancy. If it were not for such families as this, I
think I should move out of Concord.
Walking |
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 Whirligigs by O. Henry: every bank parlour and every private caucus-room in
the state Capital. Always pleasant, never in a hurry, in
seeming to possess unlimited leisure, people wondered
when they gave their attention to the many audacious
enterprises in which they were knnown to be engaged.
By and by the two dropped carelessly into the Com-
missioner's room and reclined lazily in the big, leather-
upholstered arm-chairs. They drawled a good-natured
complaint of the weather, and Hamlin told the Com-
missioner an excellent story he had amassed that morn-
ing from the Secretary of State.
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