| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: "De debbil in dat owl," he mutters. "How he know I cook for dis
camp? How he know 'bout dat bottle? Ugh!"
There are hundreds of pictures that flash into light as the boy
goes on his course, year after year, through the woods. There is
the luxurious camp on Tupper's Lake, with its log cabins in the
spruce-grove, and its regiment of hungry men who ate almost a deer
a day; and there is the little bark shelter on the side of Mount
Marcy, where the governor and the boy, with baskets full of trout
from the Opalescent River, are spending the night, with nothing but
a fire to keep them warm. There is the North Bay at Moosehead,
with Joe La Croix (one more Frenchman who thinks he looks like
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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 Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: to the reader, who in the most interesting parts finds himself,
as it were, brought into the company and present at the discourse.
De Foe in his Cruso, his Moll Flanders, Religious Courtship,
Family Instructor, and other pieces, has imitated it with success;
and Richardson has done the same, in his Pamela, etc.
When we drew near the island, we found it was at a place where there
could be no landing, there being a great surff on the stony beach.
So we dropt anchor, and swung round towards the shore. Some people
came down to the water edge and hallow'd to us, as we did to them;
but the wind was so high, and the surff so loud, that we could
not hear so as to understand each other. There were canoes on
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: and often rasping vivacity and roughness and he was never forgetful
of his first visit to the Austins and the vow he had registered on
his return. There was thus an artificial element in his punctilio
that at times might almost raise a smile. But it stood on noble
grounds; for this was how he sought to shelter from his own
petulance the woman who was to him the symbol of the household and
to the end the beloved of his youth.
I wish in this chapter to chronicle small beer; taking a hasty
glance at some ten years of married life and of professional
struggle; and reserving till the next all the more interesting
matter of his cruises. Of his achievements and their worth, it is
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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 Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: while I carried only a revolver. Seizing Snider's rifle
from his trembling hands, I called to Taylor to follow me,
and together we ran forward, shouting, to attract the
beast's attention from Delcarte until we should all be quite
close enough to attack with the greatest assurance of
success.
I cried to Delcarte not to fire until we reached his side,
for I was fearful lest our small caliber, steel-jacketed
bullets should, far from killing the beast, tend merely to
enrage it still further. But he misunderstood me, thinking
that I had ordered him to fire.
Lost Continent |
