| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: "Come, I'll take you up to the village," said Zane, getting out of his canoe.
All noticed that he was careful to take his weapons with him.
"Can't you tell us what it means--this disappearance?" asked Jim, his voice
low and anxious.
"They're gone, canoe and all. I knew Wetzel was going, but I didn't calkilate
on the lad. Mebbe he followed Wetzel, mebbe he didn't," answered the taciturn
guide, and he spoke no more.
In his keen expectation and wonder as to what the village would be like, Jim
momentarily forgot his brother's disappearance, and when he arrived at the top
of the bank he surveyed the scene with eagerness. What he saw was more
imposing than the Village of Peace which he had conjured up in his
The Spirit of the Border |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: when he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in
the cabin to look after the ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method I might
take to effect it, but found no way that had the least probability
in it; nothing presented to make the supposition of it rational;
for I had nobody to communicate it to that would embark with me -
no fellow-slave, no Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman there but
myself; so that for two years, though I often pleased myself with
the imagination, yet I never had the least encouraging prospect of
putting it in practice.
After about two years, an odd circumstance presented itself, which
Robinson Crusoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry: force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves,
sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to
which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if
its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other
possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of
the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir,
she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other.
They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British
ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them?
Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years.
Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the
|
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 Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: "I'm sorry for you," he said.
"Don't be SORRY for me," she said. "That only makes me see
the--the difference between you and me. And don't pay any
attention to what these outlaws say about me. They're ignorant.
They couldn't understand me. You'll hear that Bland killed men
who ran after me. But that's a lie. Bland, like all the other
outlaws along this river, is always looking for somebody to
kill. He SWEARS not, but I don't believe him. He explains that
gunplay gravitates to men who are the real thing--that it is
provoked by the four-flushes, the bad men. I don't know. All I
know is that somebody is being killed every other day. He hated
The Lone Star Ranger |
