| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: short, that most of them are loose women, which is a horrid abuse
upon the whole country.
Now, though I like not the assemblies at all, and shall in another
place give them something of their due, yet having the opportunity
to see the fair at Bury, and to see that there were, indeed,
abundance of the finest ladies, or as fine as any in Britain, yet I
must own the number of the ladies at the comedy, or at the
assembly, is no way equal to the number that are seen in the town,
much less are they equal to the whole body of the ladies in the
three counties; and I must also add, that though it is far from
true that all that appear at the assembly are there for matches or
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: know those striking white things you wear. They'll chase me.
They'll never get anywhere near me. And you'll be on a fast
horse. He can take you home ahead of any vaqueros. But you
won't be chased. I'm staking all on that. Trust me, Madeline.
If it were only my calculation, maybe I'd--It's because I
remember Stewart. That cowboy knows things. Come, this heah's
the safest and smartest way to fool Don Carlos." Madeline felt
herself more forced than persuaded into acquiescence. She
mounted the black and took up the bridle. In another moment she
was guiding her horse off the trail in the tracks of Majesty.
Florence led off at right angles, threading a slow passage
The Light of Western Stars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: with Christ world without end.'
"'And who is worthy to obtain this?' asked the king. The other
answered, `All they that hold on the road that leadeth thither;
for none forbiddeth entrance, if a man but will.'
"Said the king, `And what is the way that beareth thither?' That
bright spirit answered, `To know the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, his only-begotten Son, and the Holy and quickening
Spirit.'
"The king, endowed with understanding worthy of the purple, said
unto him, `What hath hindered thee until now from doing me to wit
of these things? For they appear to me too good to be put off or
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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 Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: Miss Vere?"
"No, by no means; I--I could not prevent my attention from
wandering an instant; pray proceed."
"He became at length," continued Ratcliffe, "the most ingenious
self-tormentor of whom I have ever heard; the scoff of the
rabble, and the sneer of the yet more brutal vulgar of his own
rank, was to him agony and breaking on the wheel. He regarded
the laugh of the common people whom he passed on the street, and
the suppressed titter, or yet more offensive terror, of the young
girls to whom he was introduced in company, as proofs of the true
sense which the world entertained of him, as a prodigy unfit to
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