| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: realization of her present position and recollection of
the happenings of the preceding night. For the time she
had forgotten that she was alone in the company of a
tramp and a burglar--how much worse either might be
she could only guess.
The breakfast, commenced so auspiciously, continued
in gloomy silence. At least the girl and The Oskaloosa
Kid were silent and gloom steeped. Bridge was thought-
ful but far from morose. His spirits were unquenchable.
"I am afraid," he said, "that I shall have to replace
James. His defection is unforgivable, and he has mis-
The Oakdale Affair |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: in that dratted night paddling around hunting the run-
away nigger.
But I had plenty time. Aunt Sally she stuck to the
sick-room all day and all night, and every time I see
Uncle Silas mooning around I dodged him.
Next morning I heard Tom was a good deal better,
and they said Aunt Sally was gone to get a nap. So
I slips to the sick-room, and if I found him awake I
reckoned we could put up a yarn for the family that
would wash. But he was sleeping, and sleeping very
peaceful, too; and pale, not fire-faced the way he was
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: may no doubt be acquired by those who have a turn for them, but in
which insolence, derision, profligacy, obscene jesting, debt
contracting, and rowdy mischievousness, give continual scandal to the
pious, serious, industrious, solvent bourgeois. No other class is
infatuated enough to believe that gentlemen are born and not made by a
very elaborate process of culture. Even kings are taught and coached
and drilled from their earliest boyhood to play their part. But the
man of family (I am convinced that Shakespear took that view of
himself) will plunge into society without a lesson in table manners,
into politics without a lesson in history, into the city without a
lesson in business, and into the army without a lesson in honor.
|
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 Macbeth by William Shakespeare: This Diamond he greetes your Wife withall,
By the name of most kind Hostesse,
And shut vp in measurelesse content
Mac. Being vnprepar'd,
Our will became the seruant to defect,
Which else should free haue wrought
Banq. All's well.
I dreamt last Night of the three weyward Sisters:
To you they haue shew'd some truth
Macb. I thinke not of them:
Yet when we can entreat an houre to serue,
Macbeth |
