| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: the Province House in charge to you. Take this key, and keep it
safe until myself, or some other Royal Governor, shall demand it
of you."
Smiling bitterly at himself and her, he took the heavy key of the
Province House, and delivering it into the old lady's hands, drew
his cloak around him for departure. As the General glanced back
at Esther Dudley's antique figure, he deemed her well fitted for
such a charge, as being so perfect a representative of the
decayed past--of an age gone by, with its manners, opinions,
faith and feelings, all fallen into oblivion or scorn--of what
had once been a reality, but was now merely a vision of faded
Twice Told Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: to her! She's a damn fine girl, Dick, an' what right have you to
break her heart for an old worn-out cowpuncher? Think how she's
watchin' for you with that sweet face all sad an' troubled, an'
her eyes turnin' black. You'll go, son, won't you?"
Dick shook his head.
The ranger turned his gaze upon Thorne, and now the keen, glistening
light in his gray eyes had blurred.
"Thorne, it's different with you. Jim's a fool, an' young Gale has
been punctured by choya thorns. He's got the desert poison in his
blood. But you now--you've no call to stick--you can find that
trail out. I'ts easy to follow, made by so many shod hosses. Take
Desert Gold |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: the king entreated me kindly for a whole month, and sought
out each thing, Ilios and the ships of the Argives, and the
return of the Achaeans. So I told him all the tale in order
duly. But when I in turn took the word and asked of my
journey, and bade him send me on my way, he too denied me
not, but furnished an escort. He gave me a wallet, made of
the hide of an ox of nine seasons old, which he let flay,
and therein he bound the ways of all the noisy winds; for
him the son of Cronos made keeper of the winds, either to
lull or to rouse what blasts he will. And he made it fast
in the hold of the ship with a shining silver thong, that
The Odyssey |
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 Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: And down I laid to list the sad-tun'd tale;
Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,
Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain,
Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.
Upon her head a platted hive of straw,
Which fortified her visage from the sun,
Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw
The carcase of a beauty spent and done.
Time had not scythed all that youth begun,
Nor youth all quit; but, spite of Heaven's fell rage
Some beauty peeped through lattice of sear'd age.
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