| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Where There's A Will by Mary Roberts Rinehart: basket. But there was a puddle on the floor and the soup
had spilled. There was nothing for it but to go back for more
soup, and I got it from the kitchen without the chef seeing me.
When I opened the spring-house door again Mr. Pierce was by the
fire, and in front of him, where I'd left the basket, lay a dead
rabbit. He was sitting there with his chin in his hands looking
at the poor thing, and there was no basket in sight.
"Well," I asked, "did you change my basket into a dead rabbit?"
"Basket!" he said, looking up. "What basket?"
I looked everywhere, but the basket was gone, and after a while I
decided that Mr. Dick had had an attack of thoughtfulness (or
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs: He was addressing his employer. The latter nodded, and
Grayson turned and left the room. Outside he cast a sneering
laugh back over his shoulder and swung into his saddle.
In front of the men's quarters he drew rein again and
shouted Eddie's name. Shorter came to the door.
"Get your six-shooter an' a rifle, an' come on over to the
office. I want to see you a minute."
Eddie did as he was bid, and when he entered the little
room he saw four Mexicans lolling about smoking cigarettes
while Grayson stood before a chair in which sat a man with
his arms tied behind his back. Grayson turned to Eddie.
The Mucker |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: time--whether in running, speaking, or in any other sort of action.
LACHES: You would be quite correct.
SOCRATES: And now, Laches, do you try and tell me in like manner, What is
that common quality which is called courage, and which includes all the
various uses of the term when applied both to pleasure and pain, and in all
the cases to which I was just now referring?
LACHES: I should say that courage is a sort of endurance of the soul, if I
am to speak of the universal nature which pervades them all.
SOCRATES: But that is what we must do if we are to answer the question.
And yet I cannot say that every kind of endurance is, in my opinion, to be
deemed courage. Hear my reason: I am sure, Laches, that you would
|
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 Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: agriculturists arrived afterwards; and, although they were a more
moral and orderly race of men, they were in nowise above the
level of the inferior classes in England. *c No lofty
conceptions, no intellectual system, directed the foundation of
these new settlements. The colony was scarcely established when
slavery was introduced, *d and this was the main circumstance
which has exercised so prodigious an influence on the character,
the laws, and all the future prospects of the South. Slavery, as
we shall afterwards show, dishonors labor; it introduces idleness
into society, and with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury and
distress. It enervates the powers of the mind, and benumbs the
|
