| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: speck. He dribbled a little water in over the depressed edge of the pan. With
a quick flirt he sent the water sluicing across the bottom, turning the grains
of black sand over and over A second tiny golden speck rewarded his effort.
The washing had now become very fine--fine beyond all need of ordinary
placer-mining. He worked the black sand, a small portion at a time, up the
shallow rim of the pan. Each small portion he examined sharply, so that his
eyes saw every grain of it before he allowed it to slide over the edge and
away. Jealously, bit by bit, he let the black sand slip away. A golden speck,
no larger than a pin-point, appeared on the rim, and by his manipulation of
the riveter it returned to the bottom of tile pan. And in such fashion another
speck was disclosed, and another. Great was his care of them. Like a shepherd
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: institution.
Most of the children, however, in this instance, being the
children of my grandmother's daughters, the notions of family,
and the reciprocal duties and benefits of the relation, had a
better chance of being understood than where children are
placed--as they often are in the hands of strangers, who have no
care for them, apart from the wishes of their masters. The
daughters of my grandmother were five in number. Their names
were JENNY, ESTHER, MILLY, PRISCILLA, and HARRIET. The daughter
last named was my mother, of whom the reader shall learn more by-
and-by.
My Bondage and My Freedom |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: None of us voiced his belief. But I think they were all
alike: Victory and Snider had stolen the launch, and
deserted us.
7
We stood there, grouped about the body of the dead
Grabritin, looking futilely down the river to where it made
an abrupt curve to the west, a quarter of a mile below us,
and was lost to sight, as though we expected to see the
truant returning to us with our precious launch--the thing
that meant life or death to us in this unfriendly, savage
world.
Lost Continent |
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 Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake: And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring;
And modest Dame Lurch, who is always at church,
Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch.
And God, like a father, rejoicing to see
His children as pleasant and happy as He,
Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the barrel,
But kiss him, and give him both drink and apparel.
LONDON
I wander through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
A mark in every face I meet,
Songs of Innocence and Experience |
