| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: hunter's eyes.
Verily this hunter merited the respect which shone in the great chieftain's
glance. Like a mountain-ash he stood, straight and strong, his magnificent
frame tapering wedge-like from his broad shoulders. The bulging line of his
thick neck, the deep chest, the knotty contour of his bared forearm, and the
full curves of his legs--all denoted a wonderful muscular development.
The power expressed in this man's body seemed intensified in his features.
His face was white and cold, his jaw square and set; his coal-black eyes
glittered with almost a superhuman fire. And his hair, darker than the wing of
a crow, fell far below his shoulders; matted and tangled as it was, still it
hung to his waist, and had it been combed out, must have reached his knees.
The Spirit of the Border |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Edition of The Ambassadors by Henry James: significant physiognomic total, the upper range of which, the great
political brow, the thick loose hair, the dark fuliginous eyes,
recalled even to a generation whose standard had dreadfully
deviated the impressive image, familiar by engravings and busts, of
some great national worthy of the earlier part of the mid-century.
He was of the personal type--and it was an element in the power and
promise that in their early time Strether had found in him--of the
American statesman, the statesman trained in "Congressional halls,"
of an elder day. The legend had been in later years that as the
lower part of his face, which was weak, and slightly crooked,
spoiled the likeness, this was the real reason for the growth of
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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 The United States Constitution: in Office.
Section 7. All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the
House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with
Amendments as on other Bills.
Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and
the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the
President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it,
but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House
in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections
at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it.
If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that house
The United States Constitution |
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 Virginian by Owen Wister: dare to look at anybody; I was much nearer unseemly conduct than
the cow-boys. Dr. Mac Bride gave us his text sonorously, "'They
are altogether become filthy; There is none of them that doeth
good, no, not one.'" His eye showed us plainly that present
company was not excepted from this. He repeated the text once
more, then, launching upon his discourse, gave none of us a ray
of hope.
I had heard it all often before; but preached to cow-boys it took
on a new glare of untimeliness, of grotesque obsoleteness--as if
some one should say, "Let me persuade you to admire woman," and
forthwith hold out her bleached bones to you. The cow-boys were
The Virginian |
