| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: and there a horse-post, here and there lounging townsfolk.
Other streets are marked out, and most likely named; for
these towns in the New World begin with a firm resolve to
grow larger, Washington and Broadway, and then First and
Second, and so forth, being boldly plotted out as soon as the
community indulges in a plan. But, in the meanwhile, all the
life and most of the houses of Calistoga are concentrated
upon that street between the railway station and the road. I
never heard it called by any name, but I will hazard a guess
that it is either Washington or Broadway. Here are the
blacksmith's, the chemist's, the general merchant's, and Kong
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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 Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: him, he beat her, and knocked her frail form on the floor. The
children could tell when this had happened. Her eyes would be
red, and there would be blue marks on her face and neck. "Poor
Mrs. Tony," they would say, and nestle close to her. Tony did
not roar at her for petting them, perhaps, because they spent
money on the multi-hued candy in glass jars on the shelves.
Her mother appeared upon the scene once, and stayed a short time;
but Tony got drunk one day and beat her because she ate too much,
and she disappeared soon after. Whence she came and where she
departed, no one could tell, not even Mrs. Murphy, the Pauline
Pry and Gazette of the block.
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If
it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and
probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square. What is
your income?
JACK. Between seven and eight thousand a year.
LADY BRACKNELL. [Makes a note in her book.] In land, or in
investments?
JACK. In investments, chiefly.
LADY BRACKNELL. That is satisfactory. What between the duties
expected of one during one's lifetime, and the duties exacted from
one after one's death, land has ceased to be either a profit or a
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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 Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: Christ in the sacrament. To love, even without hope, is happiness. Ah!
what woman on earth could give me a joy equal to that of receiving
your tears! I accept the contract which must end in suffering to
myself. I give myself to you with no ulterior thought. I will be to
you that which you will me to be--"
She stopped me with a motion of her hand, and said in her deep voice,
"I consent to this agreement if you will promise never to tighten the
bonds which bind us together."
"Yes," I said; "but the less you grant the more evidence of possession
I ought to have."
"You begin by distrusting me," she replied, with an expression of
The Lily of the Valley |
