| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Enoch Arden, &c. by Alfred Tennyson: He laugh'd; and then was mute; but presently
Wept like a storm: and honest Averill seeing
How low his brother's mood had fallen, fetch'd
His richest beeswing from a binn reserved
For banquets, praised the waning red, and told
The vintage--when THIS Aylmer came of age--
Then drank and past it; till at length the two,
Tho' Leolin flamed and fell again, agreed
That much allowance must be made for men.
After an angry dream this kindlier glow
Faded with morning, but his purpose held.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: cajoled or threatened out of him. But, personally, it was a blow
to the filibuster, because he knew that the governor would not
hesitate to execute his friend if his fancy or his fears ran that
way, and the big, red-headed Celt would not have let Bucky go to
death for a dozen teapot revolutions if he could help it.
"And do you think you're fit to run even a donation party, you
great, blundering gumph?" Mike asked himself, in disgust. "You a
conspirator! You a leader of a revolution! By the ghost of Brian
Boru, you had better run along back to the kindergarten class."
But he was not the man to let grass grow under his feet while he
hesitated how to remedy his mistake. Immediately he got in touch
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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 Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: 'Now,' said Julia, as they began their little festival, 'I am
going to show you Morris's letter; read it aloud, please; perhaps
there's something I have missed.'
Gideon took the letter, and spreading it out on his knee, read as
follows:
DEAR JULIA, I write you from Browndean, where we are stopping
over for a few days. Uncle was much shaken in that dreadful
accident, of which, I dare say, you have seen the account.
Tomorrow I leave him here with John, and come up alone; but
before that, you will have received a barrel CONTAINING SPECIMENS
FOR A FRIEND. Do not open it on any account, but leave it in the
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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 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: eastward by the setting sun. At that moment I was alone on her
decks. There was not a sound in her - and around us nothing moved,
nothing lived, not a canoe on the water, not a bird in the air, not
a cloud in the sky. In this breathless pause at the threshold of a
long passage we seemed to be measuring our fitness for a long and
arduous enterprise, the appointed task of both our existences to be
carried out, far from all human eyes, with only sky and sea for
spectators and for judges.
There must have been some glare in the air to interfere with one's
sight, because it was only just before the sun left us that my
roaming eyes made out beyond the highest ridge of the principal
'Twixt Land & Sea |
