| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: "Good! Greaser, go out an' hide the hosses--drive them up the canyon."
The Mexican shuffled out, and all the others settled down to quiet. I heard
some of them light their pipes. Bud leaned against the left of the door,
Buell sat on the other side, and beyond them I saw as much of Herky as his
boots. I knew him by his bow-legs.
The stillness that set in began to be hard on me'. When the men were moving
about and talking I had been so interested that my predicament did not
occupy my mind. But now, with those ruffians waiting silently below, I was
beset with a thousand fears. The very consciousness that I must be quiet
made it almost impossible. Then I became aware that my one position cramped
my arm and side. A million prickling needles were at my elbow. A band as of
The Young Forester |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: Solonet.
This last argument seemed so cogent to Madame Evangelista that she
superintended Natalie's toilet herself, as much perhaps to watch her
daughter as to make her the innocent accomplice of her financial
conspiracy.
With her hair dressed a la Sevigne and wearing a gown of white tulle
adorned with pink ribbons, Natalie seemed to her mother so beautiful
as to guarantee victory. When the lady's-maid left the room and Madame
Evangelista was certain that no one could overhear her, she arranged a
few curls on her daughter's head by way of exordium.
"Dear child," she said, in a voice that was firm apparently, "do you
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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 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: that point of view he gazed at the Oriental beauty he had not seen
before. It seemed strange to him that his long-felt wish, which had
seemed unattainable, had at last been realized. In the clear morning
light he gazed now at the city and now at the plan, considering its
details, and the assurance of possessing it agitated and awed him.
"But could it be otherwise?" he thought. "Here is this capital at my
feet. Where is Alexander now, and of what is he thinking? A strange,
beautiful, and majestic city; and a strange and majestic moment! In
what light must I appear to them!" thought he, thinking of his troops.
"Here she is, the reward for all those fainthearted men," he
reflected, glancing at those near him and at the troops who were
War and Peace |
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 Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: towards illustrating the pathology of a single people, I shall believe
that I have done better service to the Catholic Faith and the
Scriptures, than if I did really "know the times and the seasons, which
the Father has kept in His own hand." For by the former act I may have
helped to make some one man more prudent and brave to see and to do what
God requires of him; by the latter I could only add to that paralysis of
superstitious fear, which is already but too common among us, and but
too likely to hinder us from doing our duty manfully against our real
foes, whether it be pestilence at home or tyranny abroad.
These last words lead me to another subject, on which I am bound to say
a few words. I have, at the end of these Lectures, made some allusion
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