| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: not the least care of the brave boy, who well understood the trouble of
which he was the cause.
The question of knowing how, in their condition, they were to act against
the pirates, was thoroughly discussed on the 29th of November by Cyrus
Harding, Gideon Spilett, and Pencroft, at a moment when Herbert was asleep
and could not hear them.
"My friends," said the reporter, after they had talked of Neb and of the
impossibility of communicating with him, "I think, --like you, that to
venture on the road to the corral would be to risk receiving a gunshot
without being able to return it. But do you not think that the best thing
to be done now is to openly give chase to these wretches?"
The Mysterious Island |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: After a long pause, during which Buell bored me with gimlet eyes, he said,
in a queer voice: "Say thet again."
I repeated it, and added that he could not gain anything now by holding me
a prisoner. I think he saw what I meant, but hated to believe it.
"It's too late," I said, as he hesitated.
"You mean Leslie lied an' you fooled me--you did get to Holston?" he
shouted. He was quivering with rage, and the red flamed in his neck and
face.
"Buell, I did get to Holston and I did send word to Washington," I went on,
hurriedly for I had begun to lose my calmness. "I wrote to my father. He
knows a friend of the Chief Forester who is close to the Department at
The Young Forester |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells: where you will get glimpses of primitive coal mines still
worked by two men and a boy with a windlass and a pail.
Perhaps we will go through Cirencester. I don't know. Perhaps
it is better to go straight to Bath. In the very heart of
Bath you will find yourselves in just the same world you
visited at Pompeii. Bath is Pompeii overlaid by Jane Austen's
England."
He paused for a moment. "We can wire to your agents from here
before we start and we can pick up their reply at Gloucester
or Nailsworth or even Bath itself. So that if your father is
nearer than we suppose--But I think to-morrow afternoon will
|
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 Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: the photos of the Mount Pelee eruption photos in the while-you-get-
your-hair-cut weeklies. It's all right, Pick. This African man Raisuli
hides Burdick Harris up in the mountains, and advertises his price to
the governments of different nations. Now, you wouldn't think for a
minute," goes on Caligula, "that John Hay would have chipped in and
helped this graft along if it wasn't a square game, would you?"
"Why, no," says I. "I've always stood right in with Bryan's policies,
and I couldn't consciously say a word against the Republican
administration just now. But if Harris was a Greek, on what system of
international protocols did Hay interfere?"
"It ain't exactly set forth in the papers," says Caligula. "I suppose
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