| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: dried dates, oats, and powder and shot, and to fasten a scimiter to
his waist, he leaped on to a horse, and spurred on vigorously in the
direction where he thought to find the French army. So impatient was
he to see a bivouac again that he pressed on the already tired courser
at such speed, that its flanks were lacerated with his spurs, and at
last the poor animal died, leaving the Frenchman alone in the desert.
After walking some time in the sand with all the courage of an escaped
convict, the soldier was obliged to stop, as the day had already
ended. In spite of the beauty of an Oriental sky at night, he felt he
had not strength enough to go on. Fortunately he had been able to find
a small hill, on the summit of which a few palm trees shot up into the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: The remorseful Mudjekeewis,
For his heart was hot within him,
Like a living coal his heart was.
But the ruler of the West-Wind
Blew the fragments backward from him,
With the breathing of his nostrils,
With the tempest of his anger,
Blew them back at his assailant;
Seized the bulrush, the Apukwa,
Dragged it with its roots and fibres
From the margin of the meadow,
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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 Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: to trace her to, and took her mother's maiden
name, which was Hampton.
"Well," I says, "what ever become of 'em after
they run off, George?"
But George has told about all he knows. They
went North, according to what everybody thinks,
he says. Prent McMakin, he follered and hunted.
And Col. Tom Buckner, he done the same. Fur
about a year Colonel Tom, he was always making
trips away from there to the North. But whether
he ever got any track of his sister and that David
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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 Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: over all the years that had gone before. I think that all the
low, vile life, all his wrongs, all his starved hopes, came
then, and stung him with a farewell poison that made him sick
unto death. He made neither moan nor cry, only turned his worn
face now and then to the pure light, that seemed so far off, as
one that said, "How long, O Lord? how long?"
The hour was over at last. The moon, passing over her nightly
path, slowly came nearer, and threw the light across his bed on
his feet. He watched it steadily, as it crept up, inch by inch,
slowly. It seemed to him to carry with it a great silence. He
had been so hot and tired there always in the mills! The years
Life in the Iron-Mills |
