| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: equality with the other gods of her Olympus.
"And is Sophy awfully happy about it too?" she had asked,
loosening her hold on Darrow's neck to tilt back her head
and include her mother in her questioning look.
"Why, dearest, didn't you see she was?" Anna had exclaimed,
leaning to the group with radiant eyes.
"I think I should like to ask her," the child rejoined,
after a minute's shy consideration; and as Darrow set her
down her mother laughed: "Do, darling, do! Run off at once,
and tell her we expect her to be awfully happy too."
The scene had been succeeded by others less poignant but
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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 Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: such moments he wanted to give back shot for shot. But he
slipped on through the willows, and at length the rifles ceased
to crack.
He sheered to the left again, in line with the rocky barrier,
and kept on, wondering what the next mile would bring.
It brought worse, for he was seen by sharp-eyed scouts, and a
hot fusillade drove him to run for his life, luckily to escape
with no more than a bullet-creased shoulder.
Later that day, still undaunted, he sheered again toward the
trap-wall, and found that the nearer he approached to the place
where he had come down into the brake the greater his danger.
The Lone Star Ranger |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: I had privately developed from the text of Bottom and Titania; none the
less, however, did I intend to press into my service that fond couple
also as basis for a moral, in spite of the sharp turn which those last
words of mine now caused him at once to give to our conversation. His
quick reversion to the beginning of the talk seemed like a dodging of
remarks that hit too near home for him to relish hearing pursued.
"Well, sir," he resumed with the same initial briskness, "I was ashamed
if you were not."
"I still don't make out what impropriety we have jointly committed."
"What do you think of the views you expressed about our country?"
"Oh! When we sat on the gravestones."
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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 Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: escaped from Phutra.
"It was Hooja who tricked you and substituted a
Mahar for Dian when you started upon your return
journey to your own world.
"It was Hooja who schemed and lied until he had
turned the kingdoms one against another and de-
stroyed the federation.
"When we had him in our power we were foolish to
let him live. Next time--"
Ghak did not need to finish his sentence.
"He has become a very powerful enemy now," I re-
Pellucidar |
