| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Land of Footprints by Stewart Edward White: inches at the shoulder, and nine feet long.
We left Fundi with the lion, instructing him to stay there until
some of the other men came up. We remounted and pushed on slowly
in hopes of coming on one of the others.
Here and there we rode, our courses interweaving, looking
eagerly. And lo! through a tiny opening in the brush we espied
one of those elusive gerenuk standing not over one hundred yards
away. Whereupon I dismounted and did some of the worst shooting I
perpetrated in Africa, for I let loose three times at him before
I landed. But land I did, and there was one Lesser Hoodoo broken.
Truly this was our day.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: child of Providence must fall; which shall he choose, by
doing or not doing?'
'Fall, then, is what I would say,' replied Nance. 'Fall
where you will, but do it! For O, Mr. Archer,' she
continued, stooping to her work, 'you that are good and kind,
and so wise, it doth sometimes go against my heart to see you
live on here like a sheep in a turnip-field! If you were
braver - ' and here she paused, conscience-smitten.
'Do I, indeed, lack courage?' inquired Mr. Archer of himself.
'Courage, the footstool of the virtues, upon which they
stand? Courage, that a poor private carrying a musket has to
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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 Heart of the West by O. Henry: Solly gets up and comes around to me.
"'Luke,' says he, 'I'm pretty hungry after our ride. I thought you
said they had some beans here. I'm going out and get something I can
eat. You can stay and monkey with this artificial layout of grub if
you want to.'
"'Wait a minute,' says I.
"I called the waiter, and slapped 'S. Mills' on the back of the check
for thirteen dollars and fifty cents.
"'What do you mean,' says I, 'by serving gentlemen with a lot of truck
only suitable for deck-hands on a Mississippi steamboat? We're going
out to get something decent to eat.'
Heart of the West |
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 War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: hooting to one another, and then the air quivered again with
the distant thud of their guns. But the earthly artillery made
no reply.
Now at the time we could not understand these things, but
later I was to learn the meaning of these ominous kopjes that
gathered in the twilight. Each of the Martians, standing in
the great crescent I have described, had discharged, by
means of the gunlike tube he carried, a huge canister over
whatever hill, copse, cluster of houses, or other possible cover
for guns, chanced to be in front of him. Some fired only one
of these, some two--as in the case of the one we had seen;
War of the Worlds |
