| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Falk by Joseph Conrad: ruled by iron necessity and with a heart of ice--
there crept into view one by one, cautious, slow, ea-
ger, glaring, and unclean, a band of hungry and
livid skeletons. Falk faced them, the possessor of
the only fire-arm on board, and the second best man
--the carpenter--was lying dead between him and
them.
"He was eaten, of course," I said.
He bent his head slowly, shuddered a little, draw-
ing his hands over his face, and said, "I had never
any quarrel with that man. But there were our
Falk |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: their meetings there. But what was still more annoying, Brom took
all Opportunities of turning him into ridicule in presence of his
mistress, and had a scoundrel dog whom he taught to whine in the
most ludicrous manner, and introduced as a rival of Ichabod's, to
instruct her in psalmody.
In this way matters went on for some time, without producing
any material effect on the relative situations of the contending
powers. On a fine autumnal afternoon, Ichabod, in pensive mood,
sat enthroned on the lofty stool from whence he usually watched
all the concerns of his little literary realm. In his hand he
swayed a ferule, that sceptre of despotic power; the birch of
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: the question was very brisk. On the Continent Professor Wilhelm
Weber was the ablest and most successful supporter of the doctrine
of diamagnetic polarity; and it was with an apparatus, devised by
him and constructed under his own superintendence, by Leyser of
Leipzig, that the last demands of the opponents of diamagnetic
polarity were satisfied. The establishment of this point was
absolutely necessary to the explanation of magne-crystallic action.
With that admirable instinct which always guided him, Faraday had
seen that it was possible, if not probable, that the diamagnetic
force acts with different degrees of intensity in different
directions, through the mass of a crystal. In his studies on
|
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 Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: wicked."
Little Lucy shivered. "I never will."
"Well, my new cousin Content Adams -- tells lies."
Little Lucy gasped.
"Yes, she does. She says she has a big sister
Solly, and she hasn't got any big sister Solly. She
never did have, and she never will have. She makes
believe."
"Makes believe?" said little Lucy, in a hopeful
voice.
"Making believe is just a real mean way of lying.
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