| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: For underneath great shows of harm and fear,
Our dangers small, our losses little were:
LIV
"Burnt are your houses, and your people slain,
Yet safe your town is, though your walls be gone,
For in yourselves and in your sovereign
Consists your city, not in lime and stone;
Your king is safe, and safe is all his train
In this strong fort defended from their fone,
And on this empty conquest let them boast,
Till with this town again, their lives be lost;
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: this way and that, in the throes of unappeasable laughter.
He must have made himself sick; for he was not publicly visible
afterward for several days. Meantime, the episode dropped out
of my mind.
The thing that reminded me of it now, when I was alone at the wheel,
was the spectacle of this young fellow standing in the pilot-house door,
with the knob in his hand, silently and severely inspecting me.
I don't know when I have seen anybody look so injured as he did.
He did not say anything--simply stood there and looked;
reproachfully looked and pondered. Finally he shut the door,
and started away; halted on the texas a minute; came slowly back
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: he was under the ban of the law, that it was only a chance that the
arm of justice had not yet reached out for him. And now this arm
had reached out for him, although it was no longer necessary. For
Herbert Thorne was not the man to allow another to suffer in his
stead.
As soon as he knew that another had been arrested and was under
suspicion of the murder, he knew that there was nothing more for
him but open confession. But he wished to avoid a scandal even now.
If he died by his own hand, then the first cause of all this trouble,
his brother-in-law's rascality, could still be hidden.
But now his care was all in vain and Herbert Thorne knew that he
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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 Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: ancestors took the fair frivolous women of the South in their hairy
arms and bore them down to their war ships. For ever and anon the
soul becomes weary of the conventions that are not of it, and with
a single stroke shatters the civilized lies with which it is unable
to cope, and the strong arm reaches out and takes by force what it
cannot win by cunning.
When Canute reached his shanty he placed the girl upon a
chair, where she sat sobbing. He stayed only a few minutes. He
filled the stove with wood and lit the lamp, drank a huge swallow
of alcohol and put the bottle in his pocket. He paused a moment,
staring heavily at the weeping girl, then he went off and locked
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
