| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: see me, including General Alison, commandant. The officers' ladies
and children well, and called upon me - with sugar. Colonel Drake,
Seventh Cavalry, said some pleasant things; Mrs. Drake was very
complimentary; also Captain and Mrs. Marsh, Company B, Seventh
Cavalry; also the Chaplain, who is always kind and pleasant to me,
because I kicked the lungs out of a trader once. It was Tommy
Drake and Fanny Marsh that furnished the sugar - nice children, the
nicest at the post, I think.
That poor orphan child is on her way from France - everybody is
full of the subject. Her father was General Alison's brother;
married a beautiful young Spanish lady ten years ago, and has never
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: "The habits" (and he might well have added, the marvellous beauty)
"of animals will never be thoroughly known till they are observed
in detail. Nor is it sufficient to mark them with attention now
and then; they must be closely watched, their various actions
carefully noted, their behaviour under different circumstances, and
especially those movements which seem to us mere vagaries,
undirected by any suggestible motive or cause, well examined. A
rich fruit of result, often new and curious and unexpected, will, I
am sure, reward anyone who studies living animals in this way. The
most interesting parts, by far, of published Natural History are
those minute, but graphic particulars, which have been gathered up
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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 The Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: heart, and so he dropped his hand to his side and started to turn
away; but I pulled him back, and there before his men I told him
that such a thing must never again occur--that no man was to be
struck or otherwise punished other than in due process of the
laws that we had made and the court that we had established.
All the time the sailor stood rigidly at attention, nor could I
tell from his expression whether he most resented the blow his
officer had struck him or my interference in the gospel of the
Kaiser-breed. Nor did he move until I said to him: "Plesser, you
may return to your quarters and dress your wound." Then he
saluted and marched stiffly off toward the U-33.
The Land that Time Forgot |
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 Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: exhilarating, and strengthening, and soothing. I would
rather live on these hills than anywhere else in the world."
"It is well enough for artists; but I never would learn
to draw."
"And there is a very curious druidical stone just out there."
He threw a pebble in the direction signified. "Do you
often go to see it?"
"I was not even aware there existed any such curious
druidical stone. I am aware that there are boulevards
in Paris."
Yeobright looked thoughtfully on the ground.
Return of the Native |
