| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: either head or tail as the immense fish leaped furiously about in
the water, first this way, then that.
Once he came down exactly on top of me and carried me far
under; I felt his slippery, smooth body glide over me, and the tail
struck me a heavy blow in the face as it passed. Blinded and half
choked, I fought my way back to the surface and saw that they had
got fifty feet away.
I swam to them, breathing hard and nearly exhausted. The
water foamed less furiously about them now. As I came near the
fish leaped half out of the water and came down flat on his side;
I saw his ugly black head pointed directly toward me.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: so wildly that I am forced to stop.--To see you, to hear that
girlish caressing voice! To embrace in my gaze that ivory skin,
glistening under the candlelight, and through which I can read
your noble mind! To admire your fingers playing on the keys, to
drink in your whole soul in a look, in the tone of an /Oime/ or an
/Alberto/! To walk by the blossoming orange-trees, to live a few
months in the bosom of that glorious scenery!--That is life. What
folly it is to run after power, a name, fortune! But at Belgirate
there is everything; there is poetry, there is glory! I ought to
have made myself your steward, or, as that dear tyrant whom we
cannot hate proposed to me, live there as /cavaliere servente/,
Albert Savarus |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: and, sitting down again, fell upon a stubborn silence.
A day or two after, with the same secret smile, and first looking
about as if to be sure we were alone, "Mackellar," said he, "when
you have any intelligence, be sure and let me know. We must keep
an eye upon him, or he will take us when we least expect."
"He will not show face here again," said I.
"Oh yes he will," said Mr. Henry. "Wherever I am, there will he
be." And again he looked all about him.
"You must not dwell upon this thought, Mr. Henry," said I.
"No," said he, "that is a very good advice. We will never think of
it, except when you have news. And we do not know yet," he added;
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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 Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: and many other indispensable luxuries are stored up for the skilful
woodsman in the birch bark.
Only do not rob or mar the tree, unless you really need what it has
to give you. Let it stand and grow in virgin majesty, ungirdled
and unscarred, while the trunk becomes a firm pillar of the forest
temple, and the branches spread abroad a refuge of bright green
leaves for the birds of the air. Nature never made a more
excellent piece of handiwork. "And if," said my lady Greygown, "I
should ever become a dryad, I would choose to be transformed into a
white-birch. And then, when the days of my life were numbered, and
the sap had ceased to flow, and the last leaf had fallen, and the
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