| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: he thinks himself legitimist."
"Well! we are coming along, we are advancing! In five years from now
Europe will be with us. Switzerland and Italy are fermenting finely;
and when the occasion comes we are all ready. Here, in Paris, we have
fifty thousand armed men, without counting two hundred thousand
citizens who haven't a penny to live upon."
"Pooh," said Leon, "how about the fortifications?"
"Pie-crust; we can swallow them," replied Masson.
"In the first place, we sha'n't let the cannon in, and, in the second,
we've got a little machine more powerful than all the forts in the
world,--a machine, due to a doctor, which cured more people during the
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: curiosity was not yet satisfied.
"Well, the creature, amphibious or otherwise, has made off through this
opening," replied the engineer, "and has left the place for us."
"Never mind," added the sailor, "I should like very much to be Top just
for a quarter of an hour, for he doesn't bark for nothing!"
Cyrus Harding looked at his dog, and those of his companions who were
near him might have heard him murmur these words,--
"Yes, I believe that Top knows more than we do about a great many
things."
However, the wishes of the settlers were for the most part satisfied.
Chance, aided by the marvelous sagacity of their leader, had done them
The Mysterious Island |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: with them? I thought Horne was an honest cattle-man."
"Lord--Bern, don't ask me thet! I'm all muddled now tryin' to
figure things."
Venters told of the fight and the race with Jerry Card and its
tragic conclusion.
"I knowed it! I knowed all along that Wrangle was the best hoss!"
exclaimed Judkins, with his lean face working and his eyes
lighting. "Thet was a race! Lord, I'd like to hev seen Wrangle
jump the cliff with Jerry. An' thet was good-by to the grandest
hoss an' rider ever on the sage!...But, Bern, after you got the
hosses why'd you want to bolt right in Tull's face?"
Riders of the Purple Sage |
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 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: was placed by nature in the hearts of mothers to their children;
without which they would never be able to give themselves up,
as 'tis necessary they should, to the care and waking pains
needful to the support of their children.
Since this care is needful to the life of children, to neglect them
is to murder them; again, to give them up to be managed by
those people who have none of that needful affection placed
by nature in them, is to neglect them in the highest degree; nay,
in some it goes farther, and is a neglect in order to their being
lost; so that 'tis even an intentional murder, whether the child
lives or dies.
Moll Flanders |
