| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: "Which, I did not know. 'THE Editor,' I proclaimed stoutly. 'The ONLY Editor.'
"'Aw, Spargo!' he sniffed.
"'Of course, Spargo,' I answered. 'Who else?'
"'Gimme yer card,' says he.
"'My what?'
"'Yer card--Say! Wot's yer business, anyway?'
"And the anaemic Cerberus sized me up with so insolent an eye that I reached
over and took him out of his chair. I knocked on his meagre chest with my fore
knuckle, and fetched forth a weak, gaspy cough; but he looked at me
unflinchingly, much like a defiant sparrow held in the hand.
"'I am the census-taker Time,' I boomed in sepulchral tones. 'Beware lest I
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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 Vision Splendid by William MacLeod Raine: In there"--with a smiling wave of his hand--"they think people are
more important than things. A most unsettling notion!"
"Mean to say you believe all that rant they talk?"
"Not quite," Jeff laughed.
"Well, I'd cut that bunch of anarchists if I were you," his cousin
suggested. "Say, Jeff, can you let me have fifty dollars?"
Jeff considered. He had been thinking of a new spring overcoat,
but his winter one would do well enough. From the office he could
get an advance of the balance he needed to make up the fifty.
"Sure. I'll bring it to your rooms to-morrow night."
"Much obliged. Hate to trouble you," James said lightly. "Well, I
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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 The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: legs, and "bad" when he touched the young man's chest, concluding with
the words "sick--sick."
Scarbreast regarded Hare with great earnestness, and when Naab had
finished he said: "Chineago--ping!" and rubbed his hand over his stomach.
"He says you need meat--lots of deer-meat," translated Naab.
"Sick," repeated Eschtah, whose English was intelligible.
He appeared to be casting about in his mind for additional words to
express his knowledge of the white man's tongue, and, failing, continued
in Navajo: "Tohodena--moocha--malocha."
Hare was nonplussed at the roar of laughter from the Mormons. August
shook like a mountain in an earthquake.
The Heritage of the Desert |
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 Camille by Alexandre Dumas: immediately, smiling, and as if ashamed of their own curiosity. I
was all the more eager to see the room. It was the dressing-room,
laid out with all the articles of toilet, in which the dead
woman's extravagance seemed to be seen at its height.
On a large table against the wall, a table three feet in width
and six in length, glittered all the treasures of Aucoc and
Odiot. It was a magnificent collection, and there was not one of
those thousand little things so necessary to the toilet of a
woman of the kind which was not in gold or silver. Such a
collection could only have been got together little by little,
and the same lover had certainly not begun and ended it.
Camille |
