| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: Buzzard Jim, as we call Girty, is a butcher; he has probably murdered the
girl."
"I won't leave without trying. And there's my wife, the Indian girl who saved
me. Zane, she's a Christian. She wants to go with me. I can't leave her."
"I am warning you, that's all. If I were you I'd never leave without a try to
find the white girl, and I'd never forsake my Indian bride. I've been through
the same thing. You must be a good woodsman, or Wetzel wouldn't have let you
stay with him. Pick out a favorable time and make the attempt. I suggest you
make your Indian girl show you where Girty is. She knows, but is afraid to
tell you, for she fears Girty. Get your dog and horse from the Shawnee. That's
a fine horse. He can carry you both to safety. Take him away from Silvertip."
The Spirit of the Border |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: tertiam opus perficere iussit. Munitis castris duas ibi legiones reliquit
et partem auxiliorum, quattuor reliquas legiones in castra maiora reduxit.
Proximo die instituto suo Caesar ex castris utrisque copias suas
eduxit paulumque a maioribus castris progressus aciem instruxit
hostibusque pugnandi potestatem fecit. Ubi ne tum quidem eos prodire
intellexit, circiter meridiem exercitum in castra reduxit. Tum demum
Ariovistus partem suarum copiarum, quae castra minora oppugnaret, misit.
Acriter utrimque usque ad vesperum pugnatum est. Solis occasu suas copias
Ariovistus multis et inlatis et acceptis vulneribus in castra reduxit.
Cum ex captivis quaereret Caesar quam ob rem Ariovistus proelio non
decertaret, hanc reperiebat causam, quod apud Germanos ea consuetudo esset
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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 Octopus by Frank Norris: provision had been made for keeping the old stock in repair; many
of these old ploughs were useless, broken, and out of order; some
had been sold. It could not be said definitely when the new
ploughs would arrive. Harran had decided to wait one week
longer, and then, in case of their non-appearance, to buy a
consignment of the old style of plough from the dealers in
Bonneville. He could afford to lose the money better than he
could afford to lose the season.
Failing of work on Los Muertos, Vanamee had gone to Quien Sabe.
Annixter, whom he had spoken to first, had sent him across the
ranch to one of his division superintendents, and this latter,
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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 Under the Andes by Rex Stout: a scream, and I locked my teeth tight on my lip.
I no longer returned the gaze from my own power; it held me of
itself. I felt my brain grow curiously numb and every muscle in my
body contracted with a pain almost unbearable. Still the thing
came closer and closer, and it seemed to me, half dazed as I was,
that it advanced much faster than before.
Then suddenly I felt a sensation of cold and moisture on my
arms and legs and a pressure against my body, and I realized, as in
a dream, that I had entered the stream of water!
I was crawling toward the thing on my hands and knees, without
having even been conscious that I had moved.
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