| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: wall above, and began to throw down firewood. Bud returned from the canyon,
where he had driven the horses. Greaser sat on a stone puffing a cigarette.
It was the first time I had taken a good look at him. He was smaller than I
had fancied; his feet and hands and features resembled those of a woman,
but his eyes were live coals of black fire. In the daylight I was not in
the least afraid of him.
Herky-Jerky was the most interesting one of our captors. He had a short,
stocky figure, and was the most bow-legged man I ever saw. Never on earth
could he have stopped a pig in a lane. A stubby beard covered the lower
half of his brick-red face. The most striking thing about Herky-Jerky,
however, was his perpetual grin. He looked very jolly, yet every time he
The Young Forester |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: this it was successful, the Union army and navy thereby gaining
control of the Mississippi River and cutting off forever from the
Confederacy a great extent of rich country, from which, up to
that time, it had been drawing men and supplies.
The North was greatly cheered by these victories, and all eyes
were turned upon the successful commander. No one was more
thankful than Mr. Lincoln. He gave Grant quick promotion, and
crowned the official act with a most generous letter. "I do not
remember that you and I ever met personally," he wrote. "I write
this now as a grateful acknowledgement for the almost inestimable
service you have done the country. I wish to say a word further."
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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 Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: good friends of the Parisian pattern who understand so well how to say
/Poete, non dolet!/ by producing a bottle of champagne, or alleviate
the agony of suspense by carrying you off somewhere to make a night of
it. Capital fellows are they, always in low water when you are in
funds, always off to some watering-place when you go to look them up,
always with some bad bargain in horse-flesh to sell you; it is true,
that when you want to borrow of them, they have always just lost their
last louis at play; but in all other respects they are the best
fellows on earth, always ready to embark with you on one of the steep
down-grades where you lose your time, your soul, and your life!
At length M. de Nueil received a missive through the instrumentality
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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 Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy: bitterly deceived me! You persuaded me that my father was
not my father--allowed me to live on in ignorance of the
truth for years; and then when he, my warm-hearted real
father, came to find me, cruelly sent him away with a wicked
invention of my death, which nearly broke his heart. O how
can I love as I once did a man who has served us like this!"
Henchard's lips half parted to begin an explanation. But he
shut them up like a vice, and uttered not a sound. How
should he, there and then, set before her with any effect
the palliatives of his great faults--that he had himself
been deceived in her identity at first, till informed by her
The Mayor of Casterbridge |
