| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: yes, but behind it there is a certain intensity. That man has something on his
mind."
"If he is in love with Betty, as you seem to think, he has enough on his mind.
I'll vouch for that," said Col. Zane. "Betty is inclined to be a coquette. If
she liked Clarke pretty well, it may be a lesson to her."
"I wish she were married and settled down. It may have been no great harm for
Betty to have kind many admirers while in Philadelphia, but out here on the
border it will never do. These men will not have it. There will be trouble
come of Betty's coquettishness."
"Why, Bessie, she is only a child. What would you have her do? Marry the first
man who asked her?"
Betty Zane |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: necessary purpose, I have lost them."
First, the palace: do you imagine that a building, beautified in every
way at an enormous cost, will afford you greater pride and ornament
than a whole city ringed with walls and battlements, whose furniture
consists of temples and pillared porticoes,[2] harbours, market-
places?
[2] Reading {parastasi}, properly "pillasters" (Poll. i. 76. 10. 25) =
"antae," hence "templum in antis" (see Vitruv. iii. 2. 2); or more
widely the entrance of a temple or other building. (Possibly the
author is thinking of "the Propylea").Cf. Eur. "Phoen." 415; "I.
T." 1159. = {stathmoi}, Herod. i. 179; Hom. "Il." xiv. 167; "Od."
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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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: Cilicia in quality of lieutenant to Sestius, who had the
government of that province. But finding no opportunity there
of doing any great service, and hearing that Pompey and Caesar
were now near one another and preparing for the battle upon
which all depended, he came of his own accord to Macedonia to
partake in the danger. At his coming it is said that Pompey was
so surprised and so pleased, that, rising from his chair in the
sight of all who were about him, he saluted and embraced him, as
one of the chiefest of his party. All the time that he was in
the camp, excepting that which he spent in Pompey's company, he
employed in reading and in study, which he did not neglect even
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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 Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: how buyers were likely to be besieged by eager salesmen with
cards, and with tempting lines of goods spread knowingly in
the various sample-rooms.
Fanny Brandeis was thirteen, and emotional, and incredibly
receptive and alive. It is impossible to tell what she
learned during that Chicago trip, it was so crowded, so
wonderful. She went with her mother to the wholesale houses
and heard and saw and, unconsciously, remembered. When she
became fatigued with the close air of the dim showrooms,
with their endless aisles piled with every sort of ware, she
would sit on a chair in some obscure corner, watching those
Fanny Herself |
