| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: a fortnight when I first came to see Belarab"; and Mrs. Travers
felt more than ever as if walking in a dream when she perceived
beyond the rails of its verandah and visible from head to foot
two figures in an armour of chain mail with pointed steel helmets
crested with white and black feathers and guarding the closed
door. A high bench draped in turkey cloth stood in an open space
of the great audience shed. Lingard led her up to it, Jorgenson
on her other side closed the parasol calmly, and when she sat
down between them the whole throng before her eyes sank to the
ground with one accord disclosing in the distance of the
courtyard a lonely figure leaning against the smooth trunk of a
The Rescue |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: exactly that, long ago. But the glory of the summer were the orioles and the
scarlet tanagers; the orioles with their marvellous notes, and the tanagers in
their scarlet golfing coats glinting here and there in the sunshine. Nests
everywhere, and Tattine on one long voyage of discovery, until she knew where
at least twenty little bird families were going to crack-shell their way into
life. But there was one little family of whose whereabouts she knew nothing,
nor anyone else for that matter, until "Hark, what was that?"--Mabel and
Rudolph and Tattine were running across the end of the porch, and it was
Rudolph who brought them to a standstill.
"It's puppies under the piazza, that's what it is," declared Tattine; "where
ever did they come from, and how ever do you suppose they got there?"
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