| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: flushed, her fingers flew with passionate feeling over the ivory keys.
This was her last great day, an unmarked day of festival, held in her
own soul by the spirit of her memories. When the doctor came, he
ordered her to stay in bed. The alarming dictum was received with
bewildered silence.
When the doctor had gone, she turned to the older boy.
"Louis," she said, "take me out on the terrace, so that I may see my
country once more."
The boy gave his arm at those simply uttered words, and brought his
mother out upon the terrace; but her eyes turned, perhaps
unconsciously, to heaven rather than to the earth, and indeed, it
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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 Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: venture nothing in speech or act.
Having gained a booty of between seven and eight thousand dollars
from the prizes captured, the pirates sailed away from Charleston
Harbor to the coast of North Carolina.
And now Blackbeard, following the plan adopted by so many others
of his kind, began to cudgel his brains for means to cheat his
fellows out of their share of the booty.
At Topsail Inlet he ran his own vessel aground, as though by
accident. Hands, the captain of one of the consorts, pretending
to come to his assistance, also grounded HIS sloop. Nothing now
remained but for those who were able to get away in the other
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
