| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moral Emblems by Robert Louis Stevenson: I stand upon this moor of mine,
A hoar, unconquerable pine.'
The second sniffed and answered: 'Pooh!
I am as good a pine as you.'
'Discourteous tree,' the first replied,
'The tempest in my boughs had cried,
The hunter slumbered in my shade,
A hundred years ere you were made.'
The second smiled as he returned:
'I shall be here when you are burned.'
So far dissension ruled the pair,
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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 Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey: Then Mrs. Hutter returned, carrying a tray, which she set upon a chair, and
drew to Carley's side. "Eat an' drink," she said, as if these actions were
the cardinally important ones of life. "Flo, you carry her bags up to that
west room we always give to some particular person we want to love Lolomi."
Next she threw sticks of wood upon the fire, making it crackle and blaze,
then seated herself near Carley and beamed upon her.
"You'll not mind if we call you Carley?" she asked, eagerly.
"Oh, indeed no! I--I'd like it," returned Carley, made to feel friendly and
at home in spite of herself.
"You see it's not as if you were just a stranger," went on Mrs. flutter.
"Tom--that's Flo's father--took a likin' to Glenn Kilbourne when he first
The Call of the Canyon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: wing'd, leap on through space
And scale the bastioned nights that bar the secret's
inner dwelling-place;
Or say it ever roam dim glades where pallid
wraiths of long-dead moons
Flit like blown feathers through the shades, borne
on the breath of sobbing tunes:
Say any tide of any time, of all the tides that ebb
and flow,
Shall buoy us on toward any clime; but say--at
last--you do not know!
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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 Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: fighting man did he seem, but Carthoris could not
find it in his heart to doubt him.
The outcome of the matter was that he gave the naked
odwar leave to accompany him, and together they set
out upon the spoor of Thuvia and Komal.
Down to the ochre sea-bottom the trail led. There it
disappeared, as Carthoris had known that it would; but where
it entered the plain its direction had been toward Aaanthor
and so toward Aaanthor the two turned their faces.
It was a long and tedious journey, fraught with many dangers.
The bowman could not travel at the pace set by Carthoris,
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
