| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: find himself famous. In the next few years four more volumes were
added to "Modern Painters," and the other notable series upon
art, "The Stones of Venice" and "The Seven Lamps of
Architecture," were sent forth.
Then, in 1860, when Ruskin was about forty years old, there
came a great change. His heaven-born genius for making the
appreciation of beauty a common possession was deflected from its
true field. He had been asking himself what are the conditions
that produce great art, and the answer he found declared that art
cannot be separated from life, nor life from industry and
industrial conditions. A civilization founded upon unrestricted
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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 Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: thank you for the pleasure I have derived from our little
talk--and the information as well. You can hardly imagine how
you have interested me. Will you kindly step back and let me
pass?"
Loge got to his feet with a muttered oath; his face went livid
and a muscle worked in his throat; his fingers contracted like
the claws of some big and powerful cat. But, out of respect for
Cleggett's pistol, he stepped backward.
"You have confessed to making counterfeit money," went on
Cleggett, enjoying the situation, "and you have as good as told
me that there are further evidences of crime on board the Jasper
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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 Under the Andes by Rex Stout: the water-basin with touching sentiment; I gave him hearty applause
and joined in the chorus. The cavern rang.
"The last time I sang that," said Harry as the last echoes
died away, "was at the Midlothian. Bunk Stafford was there, and
Billy Du Mont, and Fred Marston--I say, do you remember Freddie?
And his East Side crocodiles?
"My, but weren't they daisies? And polo? They could play it
in their sleep. And--what's this? Paul! Something's up! Here
they come--Mr. and Mrs. Inca and all the children!"
I sprang hastily to my feet and stood by Harry's side. He was
right.
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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 The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: better leave him alone. We shall not get anything more out of him,
and we might arouse his suspicions. One never knows what spies may be
lurking around these God-forsaken places."
"What care I?" she replied lightly, "now I know that my
husband is safe, and that I shall see him almost directly!"
"Hush!" he said in genuine alarm, for she had talked quite
loudly, in the fulness of her glee, "the very walls have ears in
France, these days."
He rose quickly from the table, and walked round the bare,
squalid room, listening attentively at the door, through which Brogard
has just disappeared, and whence only muttered oaths and shuffling
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
