| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: were dry brown hills enough; but they were hills, and
they had trees on them, and canons in them, so to our
eyes, wearied with flatness, they seemed wonderful.
VII
THE FOOT-HILLS
At once our spirits rose. We straightened in our
saddles, we breathed deep, we joked. The
country was scorched and sterile; the wagon-trail,
almost paralleling the mountains themselves on a long
easy slant toward the high country, was ankle-deep
in dust; the ravines were still dry of water. But it
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence: himself to her. She was better and bigger than he. He would depend
on her.
She went wandering, in her blind way, through the little throngs
of people outside the church. She always looked so lost and out of
place among people. He went forward and put his hand on her arm.
She started violently. Her great brown eyes dilated in fear,
then went questioning at the sight of him. He shrank slightly
from her.
"I didn't know---" she faltered.
"Nor I," he said.
He looked away. His sudden, flaring hope sank again.
Sons and Lovers |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: same kind, in which he calls upon his hearers not
to allow "excessive sympathies for a few hundred
fugitives to blind them so that they may risk
increased suffering to the millions already in
chains."
The Rev. Dr. Taylor, an Episcopal Clergyman of
New Haven, Connecticut, made a speech at a
Union Meeting, in which he deprecates the agita-
tion on the law, and urges obedience to it;
asking,--"Is that article in the Constitution con-
trary to the law of Nature, of nations, or to the
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
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 My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: beneath the knees; above them he wore hose, and a doublet of dark
crimson silk close to his body; and over that a flowing loose
robe, something resembling a surplice, of snow-white linen. His
throat and neck were uncovered, and his long, straight, black
hair was carefully combed down at full length.
As the ladies approached at his bidding, he showed no gesture of
that ceremonious courtesy of which he had been formerly lavish.
On the contrary, he made the signal of advance with an air of
command; and when, arm in arm, and with insecure steps, the
sisters approached the spot where he stood, it was with a warning
frown that he pressed his finger to his lips, as if reiterating
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