| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: says:--'I am not a fool, and why should the Sirkar say I am a child?
I can see if the land is good and if the landlord is good. If I am
a fool, the sin is upon my own head. For five years I take my
ground for which I have saved money, and a wife I take too, and a
little son is born.' Ditta Mull has one daughter now, but he SAYS
he will have a son, soon. And he says: 'At the end of five years,
by this new bundobust, I must go. If I do not go, I must get fresh
seals and takkus-stamps on the papers, perhaps in the middle of the
harvest, and to go to the law-courts once is wisdom, but to go twice
is Jehannum.' That is QUITE true," explained Tods, gravely. "All
my friends say so. And Ditta Mull says:--'Always fresh takkus and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: deleterious than Nature, without the assistance of this learned
person, would ever have plagued the world withal. That the signor
doctor does less mischief than might be expected with such
dangerous substances is undeniable. Now and then, it must be
owned, he has effected, or seemed to effect, a marvellous cure;
but, to tell you my private mind, Signor Giovanni, he should
receive little credit for such instances of success,--they being
probably the work of chance, --but should be held strictly
accountable for his failures, which may justly be considered his
own work."
The youth might have taken Baglioni's opinions with many grains
Mosses From An Old Manse |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Baby Mine by Margaret Mayo: daughters. In fact, it was far into the night when the two
friends separated--separated in more than one sense, as they
afterward learned.
While Alfred and Jimmy were saying "good- night" to each other,
Zoie and Aggie in one of the pretty chintz bedrooms of Professor
Peck's modest home, were still exchanging mutual confidences.
"The thing I like about Alfred," said Zoie, as she gazed at the
tip of her dainty satin slipper, and turned her head meditatively
to one side, "is his positive nature. I've never before met any
one like him. Do you know," she added with a sly twinkle in her
eye, "it was all I could do to keep from laughing at him. He's
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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 Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Long centuries have come and gone.
John Evereldown
"Where are you going to-night, to-night, --
Where are you going, John Evereldown?
There's never the sign of a star in sight,
Nor a lamp that's nearer than Tilbury Town.
Why do you stare as a dead man might?
Where are you pointing away from the light?
And where are you going to-night, to-night, --
Where are you going, John Evereldown?"
"Right through the forest, where none can see,
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