| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: keen, pungent taste of life. For this reason a touch of dialect, a
flavour of brogue, is delightful. Any dialect is classic that has
conveyed beautiful thoughts. Who that ever talked with the poet
Tennyson, when he let himself go, over the pipes, would miss the
savour of his broad-rolling Lincolnshire vowels, now heightening the
humour, now deepening the pathos, of his genuine manly speech?
There are many good stories lingering in the memories of those who
knew Dr. James McCosh, the late president of Princeton University,--
stories too good, I fear, to get into a biography; but the best of
them, in print, would not have the snap and vigour of the poorest of
them, in talk, with his own inimitable Scotch-Irish brogue to set it
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: to explore for fear our captors would be moved to bind us.
But Harry became so insistent that I finally consented to a
scouting expedition. Caution seemed useless; if the darkness had
eyes that beheld us, doubly so. We strapped our ponchos, heavy
with their food, to our backs, and set out at random across the
cavern.
We went slowly, straining our eyes ahead and from side to
side. It was folly, of course, in the darkness--like trying to
beat a gambler at his own game. But we moved on as noiselessly as
possible.
Suddenly a wall loomed up before us not ten feet away. I gave
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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 Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: hesitating a moment, to resume on a note of dull pain, "Partly
because it does not seem greatly to matter whom I marry, I gave
him my consent. That consent, for the reasons I have given you,
madame, I desire now definitely to withdraw."
Madame fell into agitation of the wildest. "Aline, I should never
forgive you! Your uncle Quintin would be in despair. You do not
know what you are saying, what a wonderful thing you are refusing.
Have you no sense of your position, of the station into which you
were born?"
"If I had not, madame, I should have made an end long since. If I
have tolerated this suit for a single moment, it is because I
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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 Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: The mother with a patient smile
Who knows that she must wait awhile
Before she'll get a chance to say
What she's discovered through the day.
She steps aside for girl and lad
Who have so much to tell their dad.
Our manners may not be the best;
Perhaps our elbows often rest
Upon the table, and at times
That very worst of dinner crimes,
That very shameful act and rude
A Heap O' Livin' |
