| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Anthem by Ayn Rand: for us. It was that the learning was too easy.
This is a great sin, to be born with a
head which is too quick. It is not good
to be different from our brothers, but it
is evil to be superior to them. The Teachers
told us so, and they frowned when they looked upon us.
So we fought against this curse. We tried
to forget our lessons, but we always remembered.
We tried not to understand what the Teachers taught,
but we always understood it before the Teachers
had spoken. We looked upon Union 5-3992,
Anthem |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: country than I have seen it anywhere--blood-red
and angry. It IS fine."
"You do not want to go back there again?"
she stammered out.
He laughed a little. "No. That's the blamed
gold country. It gave me the shivers sometimes
to look at it--and we were a big lot of men together,
mind; but these Gambucinos wandered alone.
They knew that country before anybody had ever
heard of it. They had a sort of gift for prospect-
ing, and the fever of it was on them too; and they
To-morrow |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: as if the setting sun was shining on bare, blue-black surfaces.
But the sun was now behind the hills. In between ran the streams
of lava. The horsemen skirted the edge between slope of hill and
perpendicular ragged wall. This red lava seemed to have flowed
and hardened there only yesterday. It was broken sharp,
dull rust color, full of cracks and caves and crevices, and
everywhere upon its jagged surface gew the white-thorned choya.
Again twilight encompassed the travelers. But there was still
light enough for Gale to see the constricted passage open into a
wide, deep space where the dull color was relieved by the gray
of gnarled and dwarfed mesquite. Blanco Sol, keenest of scent,
Desert Gold |
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 Professor by Charlotte Bronte: discover a path."
I sat down; I propped my forehead on both my hands; I thought and
thought an hour-two hours; vainly. I seemed like one sealed in a
subterranean vault, who gazes at utter blackness; at blackness
ensured by yard-thick stone walls around, and by piles of
building above, expecting light to penetrate through granite, and
through cement firm as granite. But there are chinks, or there
may be chinks, in the best adjusted masonry; there was a chink in
my cavernous cell; for, eventually, I saw, or seemed to see, a
ray--pallid, indeed, and cold, and doubtful, but still a ray, for
it showed that narrow path which conscience had promised after
The Professor |
