| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: saplings waved; then out into the open glade bounded a large buck with a
whistle of alarm. Throwing his rifle to a level, Joe was trying to cover the
bounding deer, when the hunter struck up his piece.
"Lad, don't kill fer the sake of killin," he said, quietly. "We have plenty of
venison. We'll go arter a buffalo. I hev a hankerin' fer a good rump steak."
Half an hour later, the hunters emerged from the forest into a wide plain of
waving grass. It was a kind of oval valley, encircled by hills, and had been
at one time, perhaps, covered with water. Joe saw a herd of large animals
browsing, like cattle, in a meadow. His heart beat high, for until that moment
the only buffalo he had seen were the few which stood on the river banks as
the raft passed down the Ohio. He would surely get a shot at one of these huge
The Spirit of the Border |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: bench in the kitchen.
He sat down at once, and with an evidently accustomed movement
slipped the straps of his wallet first off one shoulder and then
off the other.
'My God, my God! How you have humbled yourself, Father! Such
great fame, and now like this . . .'
Sergius did not reply, but only smiled meekly, placing his wallet
under the bench on which he sat.
'Masha, do you know who this is?'--And in a whisper Praskovya
Mikhaylovna told her daughter who he was, and together they then
carried the bed and the cradle out of the tiny room and cleared
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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 Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: there must be another better one somewhere into Cheseldine's
hiding-place.
He rounded a jutting corner, where view had been shut off, and
presently came out upon the rim of a high wall. Beneath, like a
green gulf seen through blue haze, lay an amphitheater walled
in on the two sides he could see. It lay perhaps a thousand
feet below him; and, plain as all the other features of that
wild environment, there shone out a big red stone or adobe
cabin, white water shining away between great borders, and
horses and cattle dotting the levels. It was a peaceful,
beautiful scene. Duane could not help grinding his teeth at the
The Lone Star Ranger |
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 Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: "Not wholly--not as you and I understand each other."
"Then you feel it, too? Oh, I am happy," she sighed.
They stood, hand in hand, looking down over the parapet upon the
shimmering landscape which stretched forth beneath them into
sapphirine space, and the Spirit of Life, who kept watch near the
threshold, heard now and then a floating fragment of their talk
blown backward like the stray swallows which the wind sometimes
separates from their migratory tribe.
"Did you never feel at sunset--"
"Ah, yes; but I never heard anyone else say so. Did you?"
"Do you remember that line in the third canto of the 'Inferno?'"
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