| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: against his own face--which, indeed, was not his own, but his
brother's. No matter what his mission, east or west, by land or
sea, he was sure to find himself employed in his brother's
business, one of the tributary lives which helped to swell the
shining current of Adriance Hilgarde's. It was not the first
time that his duty had been to comfort, as best he could, one of
the broken things his brother's imperious speed had cast aside
and forgotten. He made no attempt to analyze the situation or to
state it in exact terms; but he felt Katharine Gaylord's need for
him, and he accepted it as a commission from his brother to help
this woman to die. Day by day he felt her demands on him grow
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: passed to all appearance like a thousand other evenings of their
monotonous life, yet it was certainly the most horrible. Eugenie sewed
without raising her head, and did not use the workbox which Charles
had despised the night before. Madame Grandet knitted her sleeves.
Grandet twirled his thumbs for four hours, absorbed in calculations
whose results were on the morrow to astonish Saumur. No one came to
visit the family that day. The whole town was ringing with the news of
the business trick just played by Grandet, the failure of his brother,
and the arrival of his nephew. Obeying the desire to gossip over their
mutual interests, all the upper and middle-class wine-growers in
Saumur met at Monsieur des Grassins, where terrible imprecations were
Eugenie Grandet |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: the pure truth, look at us on that day before the
judgment-seat of Christ? Christ, the Lord and Judge of us all,
knows well that they lie and have [always] lied, His sentence
they in turn, must hear; that I know certainly. God convert to
repentance those who can be converted! Regarding the rest it
will be said, Woe, and, alas! eternally.
But to return to the subject. I verily desire to see a truly
Christian Council [assembled some time], in order that many
matters and persons might be helped. Not that we need It, for
our churches are now, through God's grace, so enlightened and
equipped with the pure Word and right use of the Sacraments,
|
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 Options by O. Henry: mystery; that man can foretell, construe, subdue, comprehend, and
interpret her. That she is a mystery has been foisted by herself upon
credulous mankind. Whether I am right or wrong we shall see. As
"Harper's Drawer" used to say in bygone years: "The following good
story is told of Miss --, Mr. --, Mr. --and Mr. --."
We shall have to omit "Bishop X" and "the Rev. --," for they do not
belong.
In those days Paloma was a new town on the line of the Southern
Pacific. A reporter would have called it a "mushroom" town; but it
was not. Paloma was, first and last, of the toadstool variety.
The train stopped there at noon for the engine to drink and for the
Options |
