| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: So clamoringly, for each racked empty day
That leads one more last human hope away,
As quiet fiends would lead past our crazed eyes
Our children to an unseen sacrifice?
If after all that we have lived and thought,
All comes to Nought, --
If there be nothing after Now,
And we be nothing anyhow,
And we know that, -- why live?
'Twere sure but weaklings' vain distress
To suffer dungeons where so many doors
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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 Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: them shut up the bank. You want their aid. Let them make sure
of their gold. But the clerks and cashier ought to be at their
desks or window when Poggin rides up. He'll glance in before he
gets down. They make no mistakes, these fellows. We must be
slicker than they are, or lose. When you get the bank people
wise, send your men over one by one. No hurry, no excitement,
no unusual thing to attract notice in the bank."
"All right. That's great. Tell me, where do you intend to
wait?"
Duane heard MacNelly's question, and it struck him peculiarly.
He had seemed to be planning and speaking mechanically. As he
The Lone Star Ranger |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: vastly pleased with these strange sights; the captain meanwhile
pointing out the strangest, and telling me their names and uses.
"But where is my uncle?" said I suddenly.
"Ay," said Hoseason, with a sudden grimness, "that's the point."
I felt I was lost. With all my strength, I plucked myself clear
of him and ran to the bulwarks. Sure enough, there was the boat
pulling for the town, with my uncle sitting in the stern. I gave
a piercing cry -- "Help, help! Murder!" -- so that both sides of
the anchorage rang with it, and my uncle turned round where he
was sitting, and showed me a face full of cruelty and terror.
It was the last I saw. Already strong hands had been plucking me
Kidnapped |
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 Mother by Owen Wister: "Ethel has always maintained that if I had really understood her, it
never would have happened. She says--"
"Richard, I"--
"My dear, you shall tell your story afterwards, and I promise to listen
without a word until you are finished. Mrs. Field says that if I had
understood her nature as a man ought to understand the girl he has been
thinking about for several years, I should have known she cared nothing
about my income."
"I didn't care! I'd have"--but Mr. Field checked her outburst.
"She was going to say," said Mr. Field, "that had I asked her to marry me
when I became sure that I wished to marry her, she would have been
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