| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: good morning softly to the Kaffer woman who was coming up from the huts to
light the fire. He was leaving them all to that old life, and from his
height he looked down on them pityingly. So they would keep on crowing,
and coming to light fires, when for him that old colourless existence was
but a dream.
He went into the house to say good-bye to Em, and then he walked to the
door of Lyndall's room to wake her; but she was up, and standing in the
doorway.
"So you are ready," she said.
Waldo looked at her with sudden heaviness; the exhilaration died out of his
heart. Her grey dressing-gown hung close about her, and below its edge the
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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 Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: The scene impressed its quietness upon the young couple and brought more
forcibly to their minds the fact that they were at the gateway of the unknown
West; that somewhere beyond this rude frontier settlement, out there in those
unbroken forests stretching dark and silent before them, was to be their
future home.
From the high bank where they stood the land sloped and narrowed gradually
until it ended in a sharp point which marked the last bit of land between the
Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. Here these swift streams merged and formed
the broad Ohio. The new-born river, even here at its beginning proud and
swelling as if already certain of its far-away grandeur, swept majestically
round a wide curve and apparently lost itself in the forest foliage.
The Spirit of the Border |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: During the good old times of RUGGING AND RIVING--that is, tugging
and tearing--under which term the disorderly doings of the
warlike age are affectionately remembered, this valley was
principally cultivated by the sept or clan of the Armstrongs.
The chief of this warlike race was the Laird of Mangerton. At
the period of which I speak, the estate of Mangerton, with the
power and dignity of chief, was possessed by John Armstrong, a
man of great size, strength, and courage. While his father was
alive, he was distinguished from others of his clan who bore the
same name, by the epithet of the LAIRD'S JOCK--that is to say,
the Laird's son Jock, or Jack. This name he distinguished by so
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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 Aeneid by Virgil: As when his thund'ring sword and pointed spear
Drove headlong to their ships, and glean'd the routed rear.
They rais'd a feeble cry, with trembling notes;
But the weak voice deceiv'd their gasping throats.
Here Priam's son, Deiphobus, he found,
Whose face and limbs were one continued wound:
Dishonest, with lopp'd arms, the youth appears,
Spoil'd of his nose, and shorten'd of his ears.
He scarcely knew him, striving to disown
His blotted form, and blushing to be known;
And therefore first began: "O Tsucer's race,
Aeneid |
