| 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: "Wal, let him stay here--no, thet won't do! We might get driven back a
little an' have to circle. The safest place in this forest is where we
camped. Thet's not far. Let him drive the ponies back thar an' wait."
"All right. Ken, you hustle the pack-team back to our last night's camp.
Wait there for us. We won't be long."
Dick galloped off through the forest, and Hiram went down the slope in
almost the opposite direction. Left alone, I turned my horse and drove the
pack-ponies along our back-trail. Thus engaged, I began to recover somewhat
from the terror that had stupefied me. Still, I kept looking back. I found
the mouth of the canyon and the trail, and in what I thought a very short
time I reached the bare, rocky spot where we had last camped. The horses
The Young Forester |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: great success. Even Connie was thrilled...thrilled to what bit of
marrow she had left. And Michaelis, thrilled by his power to thrill,
was really wonderful...and quite beautiful, in Connie's eyes. She saw
in him that ancient motionlessness of a race that can't be
disillusioned any more, an extreme, perhaps, of impurity that is pure.
On the far side of his supreme prostitution to the bitch-goddess he
seemed pure, pure as an African ivory mask that dreams impurity into
purity, in its ivory curves and planes.
His moment of sheer thrill with the two Chatterleys, when he simply
carried Connie and Clifford away, was one of the supreme moments of
Michaelis' life. He had succeeded: he had carried them away. Even
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: at the end of his term, feeling doubtless that his efforts in
behalf of the slaves had been all in vain.
While in Washington he lived very simply and quietly, taking
little part in the social life of the city, though cordially
liked by all who made his acquaintance. An inmate of the modest
boarding-house where he had rooms has told of the cheery
atmosphere he seemed to bring with him into the common
dining-room, where political arguments were apt to run high. He
never appeared anxious to insist upon his own views; and when
others, less considerate, forced matters until the talk
threatened to become too furious, he would interrupt with an
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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 Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: hardly enough; and I deserve this punishment."
"_I_ punish you, madame! A man must love still, to punish, must
he not? From me you must expect no feeling, nothing resembling
it. If I chose, I might be accuser and judge in my cause, and
pronounce and carry out the sentence. But I am about to fulfil a
duty, not a desire of vengeance of any kind. The cruellest
revenge of all, I think, is scorn of revenge when it is in our
power to take it. Perhaps I shall be the minister of your
pleasures; who knows? Perhaps from this time forth, as you
gracefully wear the tokens of disgrace by which society marks out
the criminal, you may perforce learn something of the convict's
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