| 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: Ban. "It's an outrage both to horse and woman to ride in a sidesaddle."
"You look like a young Amazon," the man said approvingly, his eyes passing
tenderly over the girl as she swung the horse around.
"Are you ready?" she asked.
"All ready!"
"To the old mill," she called, as the horses sprang forward. "That's less than
a mile."
"To a finish?" he demanded.
She nodded, and the horses, feeling the urge of the reins, caught the spirit
of the race. The dust rose in clouds behind as they tore along the level road.
They swung around the bend, horses and riders tilted at sharp angles to the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Peter Pan by James M. Barrie: been sitting, and hurried to the window.
"Where are you going?" she cried with misgiving.
"To tell the other boys."
"Don't go Peter," she entreated, "I know such lots of stories."
Those were her precise words, so there can be no denying that
it was she who first tempted him.
He came back, and there was a greedy look in his eyes now which
ought to have alarmed her, but did not.
"Oh, the stories I could tell to the boys!" she cried, and then
Peter gripped her and began to draw her toward the window.
"Let me go!" she ordered him.
Peter Pan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: "The merry monarch who ended by falling a victim to profound
melancholia" becomes "To profound melancholia a victim by falling
ended merry monarch," and the sympathetic hearer weeps first and
laughs afterward, when chronologically he should be doing precisely
the opposite.
A like inversion of the natural order of things results from the
absence of temporal conjunctions. In Japanese, though nouns can
be added, actions cannot; you can say "hat and coat," but not
"dressed and came." Conjunctions are used only for space, never
for time. Objects that exist together can be joined in speech,
but it is not allowable thus to connect consecutive events.
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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 Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: Yet, thou didst sing it fair, and 'tis none so bad a snatch of a song,
for the matter of that. Now, Tanner, it is thy turn."
"I know not," quoth Arthur, smiling, with his head on one side,
like a budding lass that is asked to dance, "I know not that I
can match our sweet friend's song; moreover, I do verily think
that I have caught a cold and have a certain tickling and huskiness
in the windpipe."
"Nay, sing up, friend," quoth Little John, who sat next to him,
patting him upon the shoulder. "Thou hast a fair, round, mellow voice;
let us have a touch of it."
"Nay, an ye will ha' a poor thing," said Arthur, "I will do my best.
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
