| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: off." "You shot him?" "No, somebody else shot him in the hip.
When I came, he put up his hands, and cried: 'Don't kill me; I am a
Malietoa man.' I did not believe him, and I cut his head off......
Have you any ammunition to fit that gun?" "I do not know." "What
has become of the cartridge-belt?" "Another fellow grabbed that
and the cartridges, and he won't give them to me." A dreadful and
silly picture of barbaric war. The words of the German sailor must
be regarded as imaginary: how was the poor lad to speak native, or
the Samoan to understand German? When Moors came as far as Sunga,
the EBER was yet in the bay, the smoke of battle still lingered
among the trees, which were themselves marked with a thousand
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Peter Pan by James M. Barrie: nice to her, he had also sometimes tormented her. I can suppose
only that, like Mrs. Darling and the rest of them, she was melted
because he had all his first teeth.
She called out to him what she had come for, and he called out
to her what she was doing there; but of course neither of them
understood the other's language. In fanciful stories people can
talk to the birds freely, and I wish for the moment I could
pretend that this were such a story, and say that Peter replied
intelligently to the Never bird; but truth is best, and I want to
tell you only what really happened. Well, not only could they
not understand each other, but they forgot their manners.
Peter Pan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Both agreed that they were. Then Pesita turned toward
Miguel.
"Where is Villa?" he asked.
"How should I know, my general?" parried Miguel. "Who
am I--a poor man with a tiny rancho--to know of the
movements of the great ones of the earth? I did not even
know where was the great General Pesita until now I am
brought into his gracious presence, to throw myself at his feet
and implore that I be permitted to serve him in even the
meanest of capacities."
Pesita appeared not to hear what Miguel had said. He
The Mucker |
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 Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: such seclusion, and such lack of familiarity with modes and
forms, that Giovanni responded as if to an infant. Her spirit
gushed out before him like a fresh rill that was just catching
its first glimpse of the sunlight and wondering at the
reflections of earth and sky which were flung into its bosom.
There came thoughts, too, from a deep source, and fantasies of a
gemlike brilliancy, as if diamonds and rubies sparkled upward
among the bubbles of the fountain. Ever and anon there gleamed
across the young man's mind a sense of wonder that he should be
walking side by side with the being who had so wrought upon his
imagination, whom he had idealized in such hues of terror, in
Mosses From An Old Manse |
