| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: such a degree that even his chief was careful to humor him as a
rule, when with Hughie all the softer elements of his character
came to the surface. In his rough way he was ever humorous and
genial.
Jim McWilliams found him neither, however. He declined to engage
in conversation, accepted a proffer of tobacco with a silent,
hostile grunt and relapsed into a long silence that lasted till
his shift was ended.
"Hate to have y'u leave, old man. Y'u're so darned good company
I'll ce'tainly pine for you," the foreman suggested, with
sarcasm, when the old man rolled up in his blankets preparatory
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: when Mitia called, and was just preparing to go
to the theatre. His untidy room smelt of scented
soap and eau-de-Cologne.
"That's awful, old chap," said Mahin, when
Mitia telling him about his troubles, showed the
coupon and the fifty kopeks, and added that he
wanted nine roubles more. "We might, of
course, go and pawn your watch. But we might
do something far better " And Mahin winked
an eye.
"What's that?"
The Forged Coupon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: This exasperated Oscar, who bounded up, pulled out the wooden "back,"
and called to Pierrotin:--
"When do we start?"
"Presently," said that functionary, who was standing, whip in hand,
and gazing toward the rue d'Enghien.
At this moment the scene was enlivened by the arrival of a young man
accompanied by a true "gamin," who was followed by a porter dragging a
hand-cart. The young man came up to Pierrotin and spoke to him
confidentially, on which the latter nodded his head, and called to his
own porter. The man ran out and helped to unload the little hand-cart,
which contained, besides two trunks, buckets, brushes, boxes of
|
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 An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: or two of English, to have drunk English AFF-'N-AFF, and perhaps
performed in an English music-hall. He is a countryman of mine by
profession. He leaps, like the Belgian boating men, to the notion
that I must be an athlete myself.
But the gymnast is not my favourite; he has little or no tincture
of the artist in his composition; his soul is small and pedestrian,
for the most part, since his profession makes no call upon it, and
does not accustom him to high ideas. But if a man is only so much
of an actor that he can stumble through a farce, he is made free of
a new order of thoughts. He has something else to think about
beside the money-box. He has a pride of his own, and, what is of
|
