| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: brawling parties to bandy to and fro, a legislator of the Union;
a governor of his native state; an ambassador to the courts of
kings or queens; and the world may deem him a man of happy stars.
But not so the wise; and not so himself, when he looks through
his experience, and sighs to miss that fitness, the one
invaluable touch which makes all things true and real. So much
achieved, yet how abortive is his life! Whom shall we choose for
his companion? Some weak framed blacksmith, perhaps, whose
delicacy of muscle might have suited a tailor's shopboard better
than the anvil.
Shall we bid the trumpet sound again? It is hardly worth the
Mosses From An Old Manse |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: stranger as the people gathered around him.
During this happening, a woman on horseback halted her pony at
the chieftain's teepee. It was no other than the young woman who
cut loose the tree-bound captive!
While she told the story the chieftain listened with downcast
face. "I passed him on my way. He is near!" she ended.
Indignant at the bold impostor, the wrathful eyes of the
chieftain snapped fire like red cinders in the night time. His
lips were closed. At length to the woman he said: "How, you have
done me a good deed." Then with quick decision he gave command to
a fleet horseman to meet the avenger. "Clothe him in these my best
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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 Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: perhaps a dozen rods from Everall's door.
If Bain was drunk he did not show it in his movement. He
swaggered forward, rapidly closing up the gap. Red, sweaty,
disheveled, and hatless, his face distorted and expressive of
the most malignant intent, he was a wild and sinister figure.
He had already killed a man, and this showed in his demeanor.
His hands were extended before him, the right hand a little
lower than the left. At every step he bellowed his rancor in
speech mostly curses. Gradually he slowed his walk, then
halted. A good twenty-five paces separated the men.
"Won't nothin' make you draw, you--!" he shouted, fiercely.
The Lone Star Ranger |
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 Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: humble circle about a man's hearth more to him than all the
possibilities of the external world. The companion fable to
this is also excellent. It tells us of a man who had, all
his life through, entertained a passion for certain blue
hills on the far horizon, and had promised himself to travel
thither ere he died, and become familiar with these distant
friends. At last, in some political trouble, he is banished
to the very place of his dreams. He arrives there overnight,
and, when he rises and goes forth in the morning, there sure
enough are the blue hills, only now they have changed places
with him, and smile across to him, distant as ever, from the
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