| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: returned, now appreciably calmer. Duane could not but decide
that he felt relief at the evident rejection of Lawson's
proposal.
"Don't fuss about it, Floyd," he said. "You see I can't help
it. We're pretty wild out here, but I can't rope my daughter
and give her to you as I would an unruly steer."
"Longstreth, I can MAKE her marry me," declared Lawson,
thickly.
"How?"
"You know the hold I got on you--the deal that made you boss of
this rustler gang?"
The Lone Star Ranger |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson: Here is the weir with the wonder of foam,
Here is the sluice with the race running under--
Marvellous places, though handy to home!
Sounds of the village grow stiller and stiller,
Stiller the note of the birds on the hill;
Dusty and dim are the eyes of the miller,
Deaf are his ears with the moil of the mill.
Years may go by, and the wheel in the river
Wheel as it wheels for us, children, to-day,
Wheel and keep roaring and foaming for ever
Long after all of the boys are away.
A Child's Garden of Verses |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: along their wake.
But Butes swam to the shore, and knelt down before the
Sirens, and cried, 'Sing on! sing on!' But he could say no
more, for a charmed sleep came over him, and a pleasant
humming in his ears; and he sank all along upon the pebbles,
and forgot all heaven and earth, and never looked at that sad
beach around him, all strewn with the bones of men.
Then slowly rose up those three fair sisters, with a cruel
smile upon their lips; and slowly they crept down towards
him, like leopards who creep upon their prey; and their hands
were like the talons of eagles as they stept across the bones
|
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 Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: women of their circle as possessed of such purity, and treated
them accordingly. There was much that was false and harmful in
this outlook, as concerning the laxity the men permitted
themselves, but in regard to the women that old-fashioned view
(sharply differing from that held by young people to-day who see
in every girl merely a female seeking a mate) was, I think, of
value. The girls, perceiving such adoration, endeavoured with
more or less success to be goddesses.
Such was the view Kasatsky held of women, and that was how he
regarded his fiancee. He was particularly in love that day, but
did not experience any sensual desire for her. On the contrary
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