| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: soldiers that attempted to bar their way, and twenty troop-
ers of the Royal Horse thundered to the very foot of the
chancel steps.
At their head rode Lieutenant Butzow and a tall young
man in soiled and tattered khaki, whose gray eyes and full
reddish-brown beard brought an exclamation from Captain
Maenck who commanded the guard about Peter of Blentz.
"Mein Gott--the king!" cried Maenck, and at the words
Peter went white.
In open-mouthed astonishment the spectators saw the
hurrying troopers and heard Butzow's "The king! The king!
The Mad King |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: Liberals. When a Scotchman says he is a Conservative, it only
means that he is a Liberal with hesitations.
And yet in North Britain the American pedestrian will not find that
amused and somewhat condescending toleration for his peculiarities,
that placid willingness to make the best of all his vagaries of
speech and conduct, that he finds in South Britain. In an English
town you may do pretty much what you like on a Sunday, even to the
extent of wearing a billycock hat to church, and people will put up
with it from a countryman of Buffalo Bill and the Wild West Show.
But in a Scotch village, if you whistle in the street on a Lord's
Day, though it be a Moody and Sankey tune, you will be likely to
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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 Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: knew. So, in fear, he shut himself up in his little house, and
taking some bread and fresh water, he charitably set it outside
the house on a narrow window-ledge. And thither the other comes,
hungry for the bread which he takes and eats. I do not believe
that he ever before had tasted such hard and bitter bread. The
measure of barley kneaded with the straw, of which the bread,
sourer than yeast, was made, had not cost more than five sous;
and the bread was musty and as dry as bark. But hunger torments
and whets his appetite, so that the bread tasted to him like
sauce. For hunger is itself a well mixed and concocted sauce for
any food. My lord Yvain soon ate the hermit's bread, which
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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 The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: thinking there was somebody behind him, when the same voice struck
again on his ear. It was singing now, very merrily, "Lala-lira-
la"--no words, only a soft, running, effervescent melody, something
like that of a kettle on the boil. Gluck looked out of the window;
no, it was certainly in the house. Upstairs and downstairs; no, it
was certainly in that very room, coming in quicker time and clearer
notes every moment: "Lala-lira-la." All at once it struck Gluck
that it sounded louder near the furnace. He ran to the opening and
looked in. Yes, he saw right; it seemed to be coming not only out
of the furnace but out of the pot. He uncovered it, and ran back in
a great fright, for the pot was certainly singing! He stood in the
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