| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: several miles south of town he struck a narrow grass-grown
trail that Fletcher had told him led to Cheseldine's camp. The
horse tracks along this trail were not less than a week old,
and very likely much more. It wound between low, brush-covered
foothills, through arroyos and gullies lined with mesquite,
cottonwood, and scrub-oak.
In an hour Duane struck the slope of Mount Ord, and as he
climbed he got a view of the rolling, black-spotted country,
partly desert, partly fertile, with long, bright lines of dry
stream-beds winding away to grow dim in the distance. He got
among broken rocks and cliffs, and here the open,
The Lone Star Ranger |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: with the rest of the heads of that desperate party. Even tired
as I was, the surprise of what I heard half wakened me.
"What," I cried, "is Cluny still here?"
"Ay, is he so!" said Alan. "Still in his own country and kept by
his own clan. King George can do no more."
I think I would have asked farther, but Alan gave me the put-off.
"I am rather wearied," he said, "and I would like fine to get a
sleep." And without more words, he rolled on his face in a deep
heather bush, and seemed to sleep at once.
There was no such thing possible for me. You have heard
grasshoppers whirring in the grass in the summer time? Well, I
Kidnapped |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: cannot deceive you; this may be a misfortune, for it is one of the
conditions of happy love that a wife shall be gay and caressing.
Perhaps I ought to deceive you, but I would not do it even if the
happiness with which you have blessed and overpowered me depended
on it.
"'Ah! dearest, how much gratitude there is in my love. I long to
love you forever, without limit; yes, I desire to be forever proud
of you. A woman's glory is in the man she loves. Esteem,
consideration, honor, must they not be his who receives our all?
Well, my angel has fallen. Yes, dear, the tale you told me has
tarnished my past joys. Since then I have felt myself humiliated
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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 Hellenica by Xenophon: from the Persian satrap, and to collect vessels from various quarters.
Some were already in the Hellespont, where they had been left as
guardships by Pasippidas, or else at Antandrus. Others formed the
fleet which Agesandridas, who had formerly served as a marine[5] under
Mindarus, now commanded on the Thracian coast. Others Clearchus
purposed to have built, and with the whole united squadron to so
injure the allies of the Athenians as to draw off the besieging army
from Byzantium. But no sooner was he fairly gone than those who were
minded to betray the city set to work. Their names were Cydon,
Ariston, Anaxicrates, Lycurgus, and Anaxilaus. The last-named was
afterwards impeached for treachery in Lacedaemon on the capital
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