| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: did not understand clearly what he felt. There was that vague
idea of something wild in his blood, something that made him
fear himself.
Euchre wagged his old head sympathetically. "Reckon you feel a
little sick. When it comes to shootin' I run. What's your age?"
"I'm twenty-three," replied Duane.
Euchre showed surprise. "You're only a boy! I thought you
thirty anyways. Buck, I heard what you told Bland, an' puttin'
thet with my own figgerin', I reckon you're no criminal yet.
Throwin' a gun in self-defense--thet ain't no crime!"
Duane, finding relief in talking, told more about himself.
The Lone Star Ranger |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: high spirits, and enchanted with his really magnificent picture.
He was dancing about and playing the fool and answering serious
questions with jokes. Olga Ivanovna was jealous of the picture
and hated it, but from politeness she stood before the picture
for five minutes in silence, and, heaving a sigh, as though
before a holy shrine, said softly:
"Yes, you have never painted anything like it before. Do you
know, it is positively awe-inspiring?"
And then she began beseeching him to love her and not to cast her
off, to have pity on her in her misery and her wretchedness. She
shed tears, kissed his hands, insisted on his swearing that he
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Richard III by William Shakespeare: THOMAS ROTHERHAM, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
JOHN MORTON, BISHOP OF ELY
DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM
DUKE OF NORFOLK
EARL OF SURREY, his son
EARL RIVERS, brother to King Edward's Queen
MARQUIS OF DORSET and LORD GREY, her sons
EARL OF OXFORD
LORD HASTINGS
LORD LOVEL
LORD STANLEY, called also EARL OF DERBY
Richard III |
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 Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: painters call abatis, rose above the varnished leather of the shoes in
a swelling that was some inches high. How the feet were ever got into
the shoes, no one knows.
Following these vegetable parents was a young asparagus, who presented
a tiny head with smoothly banded hair of the yellow-carroty tone that
a Roman adores, long, stringy arms, a fairly white skin with reddish
spots upon it, large innocent eyes, and white lashes, scarcely any
brows, a leghorn bonnet bound with white satin and adorned with two
honest bows of the same satin, hands virtuously red, and the feet of
her mother. The faces of these three beings wore, as they looked round
the studio, an air of happiness which bespoke in them a respectable
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