| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: a log of wood at just the right angle, continued to be master of ceremonies,
and dipped spoonful after spoonful of the syrup, and let it trickle over the
ice in queer fantastic shapes or in little, tbin round discs like
griddle-cakes. The children ate and ate, and fortunately it seems for some
reason, to be the most harmless sweet that can be indulged in by little
people.
"Well, I've had enough," remarked Rudolph at the expiration of say a quarter
of an hour, "but isn't it wonderful that anything so delicious can just
trickle out of a tree?" his unmannerly little tongue the while making the
circuit of his lips in search of any lingering traces of sweetness.
"Trickle out of a tree!" exclaimed astonished Tattine.
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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 Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey: hard road with its sheets of flying dust, the bleak railroad yards, the
round pens she took for cattle corrals, and the sordid debris littering the
approach to a huge sawmill,--these were offensive in Carley's sight. From a
tall dome-like stack rose a yellowish smoke that spread overhead, adding to
the lowering aspect of the sky. Beyond the sawmill extended the open
country sloping somewhat roughly, and evidently once a forest, but now a
hideous bare slash, with ghastly burned stems of trees still standing, and
myriads of stumps attesting to denudation.
The bleak road wound away to the southwest, and from this direction came
the gusty wind. It did not blow regularly so that Carley could be on her
guard. It lulled now and then, permitting her to look about, and then
The Call of the Canyon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: than two hundred years ago, the daring and genius of Bristol
converted yonder narrow stream into a mighty artery, down which
flowed the young life-blood of that great Transatlantic nation
destined to be hereafter, I believe, the greatest which the world
ever saw. Yes--were I asked to sum up in one sentence the good of
great cities, I would point first to Bristol, and then to the
United States, and say, That is what great cities can do. By
concentrating in one place, and upon one object, men, genius,
information, and wealth, they can conquer new-found lands by arts
instead of arms; they can beget new nations; and replenish and
subdue the earth from pole to pole.
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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 A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: considerable in Samoan politics, except the opposite feudal party
of the Tupua. And in the temptation brought to bear on Mataafa,
even the Tupua was conjoined. Tamasese was dead. His followers
had conceived a not unnatural aversion to all Germans, from which
only the loyal Brandeis is excepted; and a not unnatural admiration
for their late successful adversary. Men of his own blood and
clan, men whom he had fought in the field, whom he had driven from
Matautu, who had smitten him back time and again from before the
rustic bulwarks of Lotoanuu, they approached him hand in hand with
their ancestral enemies and concurred in the same prayer. The
treaty (they argued) was not carried out. The right to elect their
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