| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: Yankees. By the time the military left, early on the morning of
April 3, the town was on fire. The Confederate Congress had
ordered all government tobacco and other public property to be
burned. The rebel General Ewell, who was in charge of the city,
asserts that he took the responsibility of disobeying, and that
the fires were not started by his orders. Be that as it may, they
broke out in various places, while a mob, crazed with excitement,
and wild with the alcohol that had run freely in the gutters the
night before, rushed from store to store, breaking in the doors,
and indulging in all the wantonness of pillage and greed. Public
spirit seemed paralyzed; no real effort was made to put out the
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: Of sprouted thistle on the broken stones.
He looked and saw that all was ruinous.
Here stood a shattered archway plumed with fern;
And here had fallen a great part of a tower,
Whole, like a crag that tumbles from the cliff,
And like a crag was gay with wilding flowers:
And high above a piece of turret stair,
Worn by the feet that now were silent, wound
Bare to the sun, and monstrous ivy-stems
Claspt the gray walls with hairy-fibred arms,
And sucked the joining of the stones, and looked
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: kill Clarke."
Betty's blood was up now and she said that would not be a matter of much
importance.
"When did he insult you?" asked the elder woman, yielding to her natural
curiosity.
"It was last October."
"Pooh! It took you a long time to tell it. I don't believe it amounted to
much. Mr. Clarke did not appear to be the sort of a man to insult anyone. All
the girls were crazy about him last year. If he was not all right they would
not have been."
"I do not care if they were. The girls can have him and welcome. I don't want
Betty Zane |
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 Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: he see a man start from the shadow when he was halfway down
-- in vain did he see an arm raised as he touched the
ground. Before he could defend himself that arm struck him
so violently in the back that he let go the ladder, crying,
"Help!" A second blow struck him almost immediately in the
side, and he fell, calling, "Help, murder!" Then, as he
rolled on the ground, his adversary seized him by the hair,
and struck him a third blow in the chest. This time
Caderousse endeavored to call again, but he could only utter
a groan, and he shuddered as the blood flowed from his three
wounds. The assassin, finding that he no longer cried out,
The Count of Monte Cristo |
