| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: swept his face.
"Do I? Well, rather."
"I'm glad. Sol has been finer, a better horse since you
owned him. He loves you, Dick. He's always watching for you.
See him raise his head. That's for you. I know as much about
horses as Dad or Laddy any day. Sol always hated Diablo, and
he never had much use for Dad."
Dick looked up at her.
"It'll be--be pretty hard to leave Sol--when I go away."
Nell sat perfectly still.
"Go away?" she asked, presently, with just the faintest tremor in
Desert Gold |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: the stony face of the west wall; heard again the stirring of life
without and the sound of his companions arousing themselves; saw
them come forward, and heard them wish him joy that his long
watch was ended.
It was nearly noon when Myles was awakened from a fitful sleep by
Gascoyne bringing in his dinner, but, as might be supposed, he
had but little hunger, and ate sparingly. He had hardly ended his
frugal meal before his two squires of honor came in, followed by
a servant carrying the garments for the coming ceremony. He
saluted them gravely, and then arising, washed his face and hands
in a basin which Gascoyne held; then kneeled in prayer, the
Men of Iron |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: with dreadful wounds, torn and wailing; of men mangled and crushed by
the copper sides of crashing vessels. I begin to see Venice as she is,
shrouded in crape, stripped, robbed, destitute. Pale phantoms wander
through her streets!
"Already the Austrian soldiers are grinning over me, already my
visionary life is drifting into real life; whereas six months ago real
life was the bad dream, and the life of opium held love and bliss,
important affairs and political interests. Alas! To my grief, I see
the dawn over my tomb, where truth and falsehood mingle in a dubious
light, which is neither day nor darkness, but partakes of both."
"So you see that in this head there is too much patriotism," said 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 Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: Athens, died, the supreme artist of the old world.
And do you think that this was an exceptional case? The sign of a
Philistine age is the cry of immorality against art, and this cry
was raised by the Athenian people against every great poet and
thinker of their day - AEschylus, Euripides, Socrates. It was the
same with Florence in the thirteenth century. Good handicrafts are
due to guilds, not to the people. The moment the guilds lost their
power and the people rushed in, beauty and honesty of work died.
And so, never talk of an artistic people; there never has been such
a thing.
But, perhaps, you will tell me that the external beauty of the
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