| 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: say is true. But it doesn't help me. I want the girl. If I
don't get her--I reckon we'll all go to hell!"
He might have meant anything, probably meant the worst. He
certainly had something more in mind. Longstreth gave a slight
start, barely perceptible, like the switch of an awakening
tiger. He sat there, head down, stroking his mustache. Almost
Duane saw his thought. He had long experience in reading men
under stress of such emotion. He had no means to vindicate his
judgment, but his conviction was that Longstreth right then and
there decided that the thing to do was to kill Lawson. For
Duane's part he wondered that Longstreth had not come to such a
The Lone Star Ranger |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: us.
CRITO: I see no objection, Socrates, if you like; but first I wish that
you would give me a description of their wisdom, that I may know beforehand
what we are going to learn.
SOCRATES: In less than no time you shall hear; for I cannot say that I did
not attend--I paid great attention to them, and I remember and will
endeavour to repeat the whole story. Providentially I was sitting alone in
the dressing-room of the Lyceum where you saw me, and was about to depart;
when I was getting up I recognized the familiar divine sign: so I sat down
again, and in a little while the two brothers Euthydemus and Dionysodorus
came in, and several others with them, whom I believe to be their
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: to Sevres. I concluded that he was going to Versailles, and
I was not deceived. Three hours later, the man returned
covered with dust, his errand was performed, and two minutes
after, another man on foot, muffled in a mantle, opened the
little door of the garden, which he closed after him. I
descended rapidly; although I had not seen Villefort's face,
I recognized him by the beating of my heart. I crossed the
street, and stopped at a post placed at the angle of the
wall, and by means of which I had once before looked into
the garden. This time I did not content myself with looking,
but I took my knife out of my pocket, felt that the point
The Count of Monte Cristo |
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 Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: an amateur with a door-plate. 'Very well,' said I, 'the first time
you get a proof, I will demonstrate that it is as much a trade as
bricklaying, and that you do not know it.' By the very next post,
a proof came. I opened it with fear; for he was indeed, as the
reader will see by these volumes, a formidable amateur; always
wrote brightly, because he always thought trenchantly; and
sometimes wrote brilliantly, as the worst of whistlers may
sometimes stumble on a perfect intonation. But it was all for the
best in the interests of his education; and I was able, over that
proof, to give him a quarter of an hour such as Fleeming loved both
to give and to receive. His subsequent training passed out of my
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