| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: Ye that despair,
Look backward down the vistaed years,
And all is battle--and all victory!
Man fought, to be a man!
Through painful centuries the slow beast fought,
Blinded and baffled, fought to gain his soul;--
Wild, hairy, shag, and feared of shadows,
Yet the clouds
Made him strange signals that he puzzled o'er;--
Beast, child, and ape,
And yet the winds harped to him, and the sea
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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 Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland: The way they fell indicated what kind of meat or vegetables
they were. If they both fell upside down they were the big black
tiger. If both fell on the side they were double beans.
If one fell right side up and the other on its side they were
beans. If both were right side up they were honest officials.
(What kind of meat or vegetables honest officials are it is
difficult to say, but that never troubles the Chinese child.)
If one is right side and the other wrong side up they are
dogs' legs. If the toe of one rests on the top of the other,
both right side up and at right angles, they form a dark
hole or an alley.
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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 La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: Tours, in the department of Indre-et-Loire. She forgave you."
"Sign yourself----" she stopped, hesitating and perturbed.
"Are you feeling worse?" asked Louis.
"Put 'Louis-Gaston,' " she went on.
She sighed, then she went on.
"Seal the letter, and direct it. To Lord Brandon, Brandon Square, Hyde
Park, London, Angleterre.--That is right. When I am dead, post the
letter in Tours, and prepay the postage.--Now," she added, after a
pause, "take the little pocketbook that you know, and come here, my
dear child. . . . There are twelve thousand francs in it," she said,
when Louis had returned to her side. "That is all your own. Oh me! you
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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 Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: young damsel."
Whereupon Gascoyne burst out laughing. "Marry!" quoth he, "they
be no such terrible things, but gentle and pleasant spoken, and
soft and smooth as any cat."
"No matter for that," said Myles; "I would not face one such for
worlds."
It was during the short time when, so to speak, the two owned the
solitude of the Brutus Tower, that Myles told his friend of his
father's outlawry and of the peril in which the family stood. And
thus it was.
"I do marvel," said Gascoyne one day, as the two lay stretched in
Men of Iron |
