| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: into hard work and misery would canker all the rest of his money,
and he thought the kindest thing he could do for the fine old fellow
would be to put a sure bullet through his head, and then he would
never suffer more; for he did not know where to find a kind master
for the rest of his days.
The day after this was decided Harry took me to the forge for some new shoes;
when I returned Captain was gone. I and the family all felt it very much.
Jerry had now to look out for another horse, and he soon heard of one
through an acquaintance who was under-groom in a nobleman's stables.
He was a valuable young horse, but he had run away, smashed into
another carriage, flung his lordship out, and so cut and blemished himself
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: been in the Buffalo saloon.
"The trick is easy enough," said Nate, arriving with his outlaw, and
liking an audience. "You don't want a bridle, but a rope hackamore like
this--Spanish style. Then let them run as hard as they want, and on a
sudden reach down your arm and catch the hackamore short, close up by the
mouth, and jerk them round quick and heavy at full speed. They quit their
fooling after one or two doses. Now watch your outlaw!"
He went into the saddle so swift and secure that the animal, amazed,
trembled stock-still, then sprang headlong. It stopped, vicious and
knowing, and plunged in a rage, but could do nothing with the man, and
bolted again, and away in a straight blind line over the meadow, when the
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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 Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: those with which the granite Rameses in a museum watches the
froth and fret that ebbs and flows about his pedestal-separated
from it by the lonely stretch of centuries. I have seen this
same aloofness in old miners who drift into the Brown Hotel at
Denver, their pockets full of bullion, their linen soiled, their
haggard faces unshaven; standing in the thronged corridors as
solitary as though they were still in a frozen camp on the Yukon,
conscious that certain experiences have isolated them from their
fellows by a gulf no haberdasher could bridge.
We sat at the extreme left of the first balcony, facing the
arc of our own and the balcony above us, veritable hanging
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
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 Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: GUIDO. Lord Christ receive my wretched soul to-night!
SIMONE. Amen to that. Now for the other.
[He dies. Simone rises and looks at Bianca. She comes towards him
as one dazed with wonder and with outstretched arms.]
BIANCA. Why
Did you not tell me you were so strong?
SIMONE. Why
Did you not tell me you were beautiful?
[He kisses her on the mouth.]
CURTAIN
LA SAINTE COURTISANE
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