| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: notes called to run west 5,760 varas, and then called for
Chiquito River; thence it ran south, with the meanders
-- and so on -- and that the Chiquito River was, on the
ground, fully a mile farther west from the point reached
by course and distance. To sum up: there were two
thousand acres of vacant land between the Denny survey
proper and Chiquito River.
One sweltering day in July the Commissioner called
for the papers in connection with this new location.
They were brought, and heaped, a foot deep, upon his desk
-- field notes, statements, sketches, affidavits, connecting
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: hurt by the touch of the warder's hand; but, remembering what he
had come about, he felt ashamed of feeling dissatisfied and
taking offence.
The first apartment behind the entrance doors was a large vaulted
room with iron bars to the small windows. In this room, which was
called the meeting-room, Nekhludoff was startled by the sight of
a large picture of the Crucifixion.
"What's that for?" he thought, his mind involuntarily connecting
the subject of the picture with liberation and not with
imprisonment.
He went on, slowly letting the hurrying visitors pass before, and
Resurrection |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Land of Footprints by Stewart Edward White: still burning questions. Thus he would declaim vehemently over
the Alabama claims.
"I blush with shame," he would cry, "when I think of England's
attitude in that matter."
We pointed out that the dispute had been amicably settled by the
best minds of the time, had passed between the covers of history,
and had given way in immediate importance to several later
topics.
"This vacillating policy," he swept on, "annoys me. For my part,
I should like to see so firm a stand taken on all questions that
in any part of the world, whenever a man, and wherever a man,
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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 Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: fantastic splendor had been conceived in the delirious brain of a
woman on her death-bed, and was the last toil of her stiffening
fingers, which had interwoven fate and misery with its golden
threads. This dark tale, whispered at first, was now bruited far
and wide. The people raved against the Lady Eleanore, and cried
out that her pride and scorn had evoked a fiend, and that,
between them both, this monstrous evil had been born. At times,
their rage and despair took the semblance of grinning mirth; and
whenever the red flag of the pestilence was hoisted over another
and yet another door, they clapped their hands and shouted
through the streets, in bitter mockery: "Behold a new triumph for
Twice Told Tales |
