| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: Washington), beginning from the Red River and ending at the River
Platte. From this imaginary line to the Rocky Mountains, which
bound the valley of the Mississippi on the west, lie immense
plains, which are almost entirely covered with sand, incapable of
cultivation, or scattered over with masses of granite. In summer,
these plains are quite destitute of water, and nothing is to be
seen on them but herds of buffaloes and wild horses. Some hordes
of Indians are also found there, but in no great numbers. Major
Long was told that in travelling northwards from the River Platte
you find the same desert lying constantly on the left; but he was
unable to ascertain the truth of this report. However worthy of
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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 Complete Poems of Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: JAMES.
It is some marriage feast; the joyful maidens
Go out to meet the bridegroom.
PETER.
I am weary.
The struggles of this day have overcome me.
They sleep.
CHRISTUS, falling on his face.
Father! all things are possible to thee,--
Oh let this cup pass from me! Nevertheless
Not as I will, but as thou wilt, be done!
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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 Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: day, and the nights and the days wheel over us in
succession, whether long or short, who can say?
All sense of time is lost in the monotony of ex-
pectation, of hope, and of desire--which is only
one: Get the ship to the southward! Get the ship
to the southward! The effect is curiously me-
chanical; the sun climbs and descends, the night
swings over our heads as if somebody below the
horizon were turning a crank. It is the prettiest,
the most aimless! . . . and all through that
miserable performance I go on, tramping, tramp-
The Shadow Line |
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 A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: either linen or plates. The persons of rank never touch what they
eat, but have their meat cut by their pages, and put into their
mouths. When they feast a friend they kill an ox, and set
immediately a quarter of him raw upon the table (for their most
elegant treat is raw beef newly killed) with pepper and salt; the
gall of the ox serves them for oil and vinegar; some, to heighten
the delicacy of the entertainment, add a kind of sauce, which they
call manta, made of what they take out of the guts of the ox; this
they set on the fire, with butter, salt, pepper, and onion. Raw
beef, thus relished, is their nicest dish, and is eaten by them with
the same appetite and pleasure as we eat the best partridges. They
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