| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: purse. And then - well then I felt sorry for him lying out in the
open road like that, and I thought I'd lift him up and put him
somewhere where he could sleep it off more convenient. But I didn't
see there was a little ditch there and I stumbled over it and
dropped him. 'It's a good thing he's so drunk that even this don't
wake him up,' I thought, and ran off. Then I thought I heard
something moving and I was scared stiff, but there was nothing in
the street at all. I thought I had better take to the fields though
and I crossed through some corn and then out onto another street.
Finally I walked into the city, stayed there till this morning, sold
the watch, then went to Pressburg."
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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 Riverman by Stewart Edward White: gazed steadily on the shifting shadows and splotches of sunlight; on
the patches of blue sky, the dazzling white clouds that sailed
across them; on the waving, whispering frond that over-arched him,
and the deep cool shadows beneath. The woods creatures soon became
accustomed to his presence. Squirrels of the several varieties that
abounded in the Michigan forests scampered madly after each other in
spirals around the tree trunks, or bounded across the ground in long
undulating leaps. Birds flashed and called and disappeared
mysteriously. A chewink, brave in his black and white and tan
uniform, scratched mightily with great two-footed swoops that threw
the vegetable mould over Orde's very feet. Blazoned butterflies--
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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 Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: In the never-ending Summer.
He it was who sent the wood-birds,
Sent the robin, the Opechee,
Sent the bluebird, the Owaissa,
Sent the Shawshaw, sent the swallow,
Sent the wild-goose, Wawa, northward,
Sent the melons and tobacco,
And the grapes in purple clusters.
From his pipe the smoke ascending
Filled the sky with haze and vapor,
Filled the air with dreamy softness,
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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 The Cavalry General by Xenophon: Martin, op. cit. p. 260 f.
II
Given, then, that your troopers are thoroughly trained in all the
above particulars, it is necessary, I presume, that they should
further be instructed in a type of evolution the effect of which will
show itself not only in the splendour of the great processions[1] in
honour of the gods, but in the manouvres of the exercising-ground; in
the valorous onslaught of real battle when occasion calls; and in the
ease with which whole regiments will prosecute their march, or cross a
river, or thread a defile without the slightest symptom of confusion.
What this formation is--essential, at least in my opinion, to the
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