| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: had reached that stage of degradation, much lower in a woman
than a man, when all care for dress is lost. As they came
down they neared a grave, where some pious friend or relative
had laid a wreath of immortelles, and put a bell glass over
it, as is the custom. The effect of that ring of dull yellow
among so many blackened and dusty sculptures was more
pleasant than it is in modern cemeteries, where every second
mound can boast a similar coronal; and here, where it was the
exception and not the rule, I could even fancy the drops of
moisture that dimmed the covering were the tears of those who
laid it where it was. As the two women came up to it, one of
|
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 Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: that required all his will power to consummate showed
him that no one appeared to have noticed his faux pas
and Willie was again slowly returning to normal when
the proprietor of the restaurant came up from behind
and asked him to remove his hat.
Never had Willie Case spent so frightful a half hour
as that within the brilliant interior of The Elite Restau-
rant. Twenty-three minutes of this eternity was con-
sumed in waiting for his order to be served and seven
minutes in disposing of the meal and paying his check.
Willie's method of eating was in itself a sermon on
The Oakdale Affair |
