| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: anything?"
"I don't know--perhaps. We'll have a look at it, anyway."
Moran hauled the stuff aboard, and Wilbur followed.
"Whew!" he exclaimed with half-closed eyes. "It's like the story
of Samson and the dead lion--the sweet coming forth from the
strong."
The schooner seemed to swim in a bath of perfumed air; the
membrane of the nostrils fairly prinkled with the sensation.
Moran unleashed the hammock, and going down upon one knee examined
the lump attentively.
"It didn't seem possible," Wilbur heard her saying to herself;
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: by the Aztecs according to the beastlike custom which in Anahuac
enjoined the eating of the bodies of those who were offered to the
gods, not because the Indians love such meat but for a secret
religions reason.
In vain did I pray Guatemoc to forego this horror.
'Is this a time for gentleness?' he answered fiercely. 'I cannot
save them from the altar, and I would not if I could. Let the dogs
die according to the custom of the land, and to you, Teule my
brother, I say presume not too far.'
Alas! the heart of Guatemoc grew ever fiercer as the struggle wore
on, and indeed it was little to be wondered at.
Montezuma's Daughter |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: future. Too proud to persist, but amazed at a selfishness hitherto
unknown to her, the girl took a room in the lodging-house that was
nearest to that of Luigi. The son of the Portas passed all his days at
the feet of his future wife; and his youthful love, the purity of his
words, dispersed the clouds from the mind of the banished daughter;
the future was so beautiful as he painted it that she ended by smiling
joyfully, though without forgetting her father's severity.
One morning the servant of the lodging house brought to Ginevra's room
a number of trunks and packages containing stuffs, linen, clothes, and
a great quantity of other articles necessary for a young wife in
setting up a home of her own. In this welcome provision she recognized
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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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: suggestion of a servant that it would not be difficult to
surprise him, laid an ambush, which, rising up somewhat too
hastily, seized the man that came just before him, he himself
escaping narrowly by flight.
When it was resolved to stand to a fight at sea, they set fire
to all the Egyptian ships except sixty; and of these the best
and largest, from ten banks down to three, he manned with twenty
thousand full-armed men, and two thousand archers. Here it is
related that a foot captain, one that had fought often under
Antony, and had his body all mangled with wounds, exclaimed, "O,
my general, what have our wounds and swords done to displease
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