| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: Missouri. Afterwards they had believed it to be the Rapid, or
Quicourt River, in which opinion they had not come nearer to the
truth; they now, however, were persuaded, with equal fallacy, by
its inclining somewhat to the north of east, that it was the
Cheyenne. If so, by continuing down it much further they must
arrive among the Indians, from whom the river takes its name.
Among these they would be sure to meet some of the Sioux tribe.
These would appraise their relatives, the piratical Sioux of the
Missouri, of the approach of a band of white traders; so that, in
the spring time, they would be likely to be waylaid and robbed on
their way down the river, by some party in ambush upon its banks.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: second pony was driven out from the corral. This one proved to be
a Tartar. It went off in a frenzy of pitching the moment its
rider dropped into the saddle.
"Y'u'll go a long way before you see better ridin' than his and
Mac's. Notice how he gives to its pitching," said Bannister, as
he watched his cousin's perfect ease in the cyclone of which he
was the center.
"I expect it depends on the kind of a 'hawss,'" she mocked. "He's
riding well, isn't he?"
"I don't know any that ride better."
The horse put up a superb fight, trying everything it knew to
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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 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning
of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But Marlow was
not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him
the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside,
enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out
a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes
are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine.
His remark did not seem at all surprising. It was just like Marlow.
It was accepted in silence. No one took the trouble to grunt even;
and presently he said, very slow--"I was thinking of very old times,
when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago--the other day.
Heart of Darkness |
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 Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: tempting bait, and the angler more fortunate. But I stepped by chance
into this discourse of oils, and fishes smelling; and though there might
be more said, both of it and of baits for Roach and Dace and other
float-fish, vet I will for bear it at this time, and tell you, in the next
place, how you are to prepare your tackling: concerning which, I will,
for sport sake, give you an old rhyme out of an old fish book; which
will prove a part, and but a part, of what you are to provide.
My rod and my line, my float and my lead,
My hook and my plummet, my whetstone and knife,
My basket, my baits, both living and dead,
My net, and my meat, for that is the chief:
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