| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from One Basket by Edna Ferber: "Hello, Westerveld! Hello! Well, how goes it?"
When Shumway greeted a farmer in that way you knew that there
were no unpaid notes to his discredit.
All about Ben Westerveld stretched the fruit of his toil; the
work of his hands. Orchards, fields, cattle, barns, silos. All
these things were dependent on him for their future
well-being--on him and on Dike after him. His days were full and
running over. Much of the work was drudgery; most of it was
backbreaking and laborious. But it was his place. It was his
reason for being. And he felt that the reason was good, though
he never put that thought into words, mental or spoken. He only
One Basket |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Burning Daylight by Jack London: only social diversion to be found was in the saloons. Yet the
Shovel was practically deserted, and the Virgin, standing by the
stove, yawned with uncovered mouth and said to Charley Bates:-
"If something don't happen soon, I'm gin' to bed. What's the
matter with the camp, anyway? Everybody dead?"
Bates did not even trouble to reply, but went on moodily rolling
a cigarette. Dan MacDonald, pioneer saloonman and gambler on the
upper Yukon, owner and proprietor of the Tivoli and all its
games, wandered forlornly across the great vacant space of floor
and joined the two at the stove.
"Anybody dead?" the Virgin asked him.
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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 Astoria by Washington Irving: Indians, being one of their principal places of sepulture. The
same provident care for the deceased that prevails among the
hunting tribes of the prairies is observable among the piscatory
tribes of the rivers and sea-coast. Among the former, the
favorite horse of the hunter is buried with him in the same
funereal mound, and his bow and arrows are laid by his side, that
he may be perfectly equipped for the "happy hunting grounds" of
the land of spirits. Among the latter, the Indian is wrapped in
his mantle of skins, laid in his canoe, with his paddle, his
fishing spear, and other implements beside him, and placed aloft
on some rock or other eminence overlooking the river, or bay, or
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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 Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: get up from here with my own strength; so I put myself in your
hands." "Speak out then," he says, "if thou dost admit that thou
art conquered and defeated." "Sire," he says, "it is evident. I
am defeated in spite of myself, and I surrender, I promise you."
"Then thou needest have no further fear of me, and my lion will
leave thee alone." Then he is surrounded by all the crowd, who
arrive on the scene in haste. And both the lord and his lady
rejoice over him, and embrace him, and speak to him of their
daughter, saying: "Now you will be the lord and master of us all,
and our daughter will be your wife, for we bestow her upon you as
your spouse." "And for my part," he says. "I restore her to you.
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