| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: hard stone, representing the four seasons, the faces already crumbling
away and blackened. This bas-relief was surmounted by a projecting
plinth, upon which a variety of chance growths had sprung up,--yellow
pellitory, bindweed, convolvuli, nettles, plantain, and even a little
cherry-tree, already grown to some height.
The door of the archway was made of solid oak, brown, shrunken, and
split in many places; though frail in appearance, it was firmly held
in place by a system of iron bolts arranged in symmetrical patterns. A
small square grating, with close bars red with rust, filled up the
middle panel and made, as it were, a motive for the knocker, fastened
to it by a ring, which struck upon the grinning head of a huge nail.
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: garrison; the air thrills with the sound; the bugles sing
aloud; and the last rising flourish mounts and melts into
the darkness like a star: a martial swan-song, fitly
rounding in the labours of the day.
CHAPTER IX.
WINTER AND NEW YEAR.
THE Scotch dialect is singularly rich in terms of
reproach against the winter wind. SNELL, BLAE, NIRLY,
and SCOWTHERING, are four of these significant vocables;
they are all words that carry a shiver with them; and for
my part, as I see them aligned before me on the page, I
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: them widely separated. What they meant puzzled me. But all of a sudden I
saw in front of the nearest a flickering gleam of red. Then I knew those
white streams of smoke rose where the fire was being sucked up the canyons.
They leaped along with amazing speed. It was then that I realized that Dick
and Hiram had been caught by one of these offshoots of the fire, and had
been compelled to turn away to save their lives. Perhaps they would both be
lost. For a moment I felt faint, but I fought it off. I had to think of
myself. It was every one for himself, and perhaps there was many a man
caught on Penetier with only a slender chance for life.
"Oh! oh!" I cried, suddenly. "Herky, Bud, and Bill tied helpless in that
cabin! Dick forgot them. They'll be burned to death!"
The Young Forester |
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 O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: "That's it; you always side with them against
me. They all know it. Anybody here feels free
to borrow the mower and break it, or turn their
hogs in on me. They know you won't care!"
Marie hurried away to make his coffee.
When she came back, he was fast asleep. She
sat down and looked at him for a long while,
very thoughtfully. When the kitchen clock
struck six she went out to get supper, closing
the door gently behind her. She was always
O Pioneers! |
