| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: to dumb animals, I always say he had got some good in him."
"Yes," Scipio reluctantly admitted. "Yes. But I always did hate a
fool."
"This hyeh is a mighty cruel country," pursued the Virginian. "To
animals that is. Think of it! Think what we do to hundreds an'
thousands of little calves! Throw 'em down, brand 'em, cut 'em,
ear mark 'em, turn 'em loose, and on to the next. It has got to
be, of course. But I say this. If a man can go jammin' hot irons
on to little calves and slicin' pieces off 'em with his knife,
and live along, keepin' a kindness for animals in his heart, he
has got some good in him. And that's what Shorty has got. But he
The Virginian |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: Among his many absurdities was one of which no man had as yet
discovered the object, although by long practice the wiseheads of the
community had learned to unravel the meaning of most of his vagaries.
He insisted on keeping a sack of flour and two puncheons of wine in
the cellar of his house, and he would allow no one to lay hands on
them. But then the month of June came round he grew uneasy with the
restless anxiety of a madman about the sale of the sack and the
puncheons. Madame Margaritis could nearly always persuade him that the
wine had been sold at an enormous price, which she paid over to him,
and which he hid so cautiously that neither his wife nor the servant
who watched him had ever been able to discover its hiding-place.
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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 Cavalry General by Xenophon: is represented on a patera from Orvieto, now in the Berlin Museum,
reproduced and fully described in "The Art of Horsemanship by
Xenophon," translated, with chapters on the Greek Riding-Horse,
and with notes, by Morris H. Morgan, p. 76.
On occasions when the display takes place in the hippodrome,[16] the
best arrangement would be, in the first place, that the troops should
fill the entire space with extended front, so forcing out the mob of
people from the centre;[17] and secondly, that in the sham fight[18]
which ensues, the tribal squadrons, swiftly pursuing and retiring,
should gallop right across and through each other, the two hipparchs
at their head, each with five squadrons under him. Consider the effect
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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 Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: and amiable, but, when overtaxed, was fiery and impetuous for a
single instant, and no more. It seemed as if a sudden flash of
anger went over him, like the flash that glides along the
glutinous stem of the fraxinella, when you touch it with a
candle; the next moment it had utterly vanished, and was
forgotten as if it had never been.
Kate's love for her lover was one of those healthy and assured
ties that often outlast the ardors of more passionate natures.
For other temperaments it might have been inadequate; but
theirs matched perfectly, and it was all sufficient for them.
If there was within Kate's range a more heroic and ardent
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