| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: them, and that the little bride wept, so that the young
husband had to kiss away the tears."
She shut the rusty, sagging door very slowly and
gently. "No doubt the workmen who will come to
prepare the ground for the new library will laugh and
joke among themselves when they see the oven, and they
will kick it with their heels, and wonder what the old
brick mound could have been."
There was a little twisted smile on her face as she
rose--a smile that brought a hot mist of tears to my
eyes. There was tragedy itself in that spare, homely
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: impossible I should have answered it, which is inconsistent with my
own recollection of the fact. What I remember is, that I sat down
under your immediate inspiration and wrote an answer in every way
worthy. If I didn't, as it seems proved that I couldn't, it will
never be done now. However, I did the next best thing, I equipped
my cousin Graham Balfour with a letter of introduction, and from
him, if you know how - for he is rather of the Scottish character -
you may elicit all the information you can possibly wish to have as
to us and ours. Do not be bluffed off by the somewhat stern and
monumental first impression that he may make upon you. He is one
of the best fellows in the world, and the same sort of fool that we
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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 Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: filled him with dizziness and indigestion. He was apologetic and doubtful, and
it was Paul, with his thin voice, who pierced the fog:
"Good Lord, George, you don't suppose it's any novelty to me to find that we
hustlers, that think we're so all-fired successful, aren't getting much out of
it? You look as if you expected me to report you as seditious! You know what
my own life's been."
"I know, old man."
"I ought to have been a fiddler, and I'm a pedler of tar-roofing! And
Zilla--Oh, I don't want to squeal, but you know as well as I do about how
inspiring a wife she is.... Typical instance last evening: We went to the
movies. There was a big crowd waiting in the lobby, us at the tail-end. She
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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 Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: palace of Tokoyo!... How extraordinary!... Raishu ought to lie somewhere
southwest of it -- to the left of that big root... Yes! -- here it is!...
How very strange! Now I am sure that I can find the mountain of Hanryoko,
and the grave of the princess."...
In the wreck of the nest he searched and searched, and at last discovered
a tiny mound, on the top of which was fixed a water-worn pebble, in shape
resembling a Buddhist monument. Underneath it he found -- embedded in clay
-- the dead body of a female ant.
RIKI-BAKA
His name was Riki, signifying Strength; but the people called him
Riki-the-Simple, or Riki-the-Fool,-- "Riki-Baka,"-- because he had been
Kwaidan |
