| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: that the conflict was protracted until the onlookers un-
selfishly gave the warning cry of "Cheese it -- the
cop!" The principals escaped easily by running
through the nearest open doors into the communi-
cating backyards at the rear of the houses.
Mr. McQuirk emerged into another street. He
stood by a lamp-post for a few minutes engaged in
thought and then he turned and plunged into a small
notion and news shop. A red-haired young woman,
eating gum-drops, came and looked freezingly at him
across the ice-bound steppes of the counter.
The Voice of the City |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: knuckles. "Is that sort of thing always dreaming? Is it dreaming?
Or is it something else? Mightn't it be something else?"
I should have snubbed his persistent conversation but for the
drawn anxiety of his face. I remember now the look of his faded
eyes and the lids red stained--perhaps you know that look.
"I'm not just arguing about a matter of opinion," he said.
"The thing's killing me."
"Dreams?"
"If you call them dreams. Night after night. Vivid!--so
vivid . . . . this--" (he indicated the landscape that went
streaming by the window) "seems unreal in comparison! I can
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Clinging with one hand to the short mane of his quarry,
Tarzan struck again and again with his knife at the
unprotected heart. The result had, from the first,
been inevitable. The mare fought bravely, but
hopelessly, and presently sank to the earth, her heart
pierced. The ape-man placed a foot upon her carcass
and raised his voice in the victory call of the
Mangani. In the distance, Basuli halted as the faint
notes of the hideous scream broke upon his ears.
"The great apes," he said to his companion. "It has
been long since I have heard them in the country of the
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: come at; and as the youth had a bill of lading for them, I made his
commander sign a writing, obliging himself to go, as soon as he
came to Bristol, to one Mr. Rogers, a merchant there, to whom the
youth said he was related, and to deliver a letter which I wrote to
him, and all the goods he had belonging to the deceased widow;
which, I suppose, was not done, for I could never learn that the
ship came to Bristol, but was, as is most probable, lost at sea,
being in so disabled a condition, and so far from any land, that I
am of opinion the first storm she met with afterwards she might
founder, for she was leaky, and had damage in her hold when we met
with her.
Robinson Crusoe |
