| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: meal they looked down at their plates and did
not lift their red eyes. They did not eat much,
although they had been working in the cold all
day, and there was a rabbit stewed in gravy for
supper, and prune pies.
John Bergson had married beneath him, but
he had married a good housewife. Mrs. Berg-
son was a fair-skinned, corpulent woman, heavy
and placid like her son, Oscar, but there was
something comfortable about her; perhaps it
O Pioneers! |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: speech of beings of my own race. Say what you will, in God's
name!"
"I hold, sir," said Jack, modestly, "according to holy Scripture,
that whosoever repents from his heart, as God knows you seem to
have done, is forgiven there and then; and though his sins be as
scarlet, they shall be white as snow, for the sake of Him who died
for all."
"Amen! Amen!" said the old man, looking lovingly at his little
crucifix. "I hope and pray--His name is Love. I know it now; who
better? But, sir, even if He have forgiven me, how can I forgive
myself? In honor, sir, I must be just, and sternly just, to
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: "Plissoud," replied Rigou.
"Plissoud!" exclaimed Soudry. "Poor fool! Brunet holds him by the
halter, and his wife by the gullet; ask Lupin."
"What can he do?" said Lupin.
"He means to warn Montcornet," replied Rigou, "and get his influence
and a place--"
"It wouldn't bring him more than his wife earns for him at Soulanges,"
said Madame Soudry.
"He tells everything to his wife when he is drunk," remarked Lupin.
"We shall know it all in good time."
"The beautiful Madame Plissoud has no secrets from you," said Rigou;
|
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 The Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: And wistful yet for being cheated,
A child would seem to ask again
A question many times repeated;
But no rebellion has betrayed
Her wonder at what she has paid
For memories that have no stain,
For triumph born to be defeated.
To those who come for what she was --
The few left who know where to find her --
She clings, for they are all she has;
And she may smile when they remind her,
|
