| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: being satisfi'd with that, he determin'd to throw the log himself.
Accordingly some days after, when the wind blew very fair and fresh,
and the captain of the paquet, Lutwidge, said he believ'd she then
went at the rate of thirteen knots, Kennedy made the experiment,
and own'd his wager lost.
The above fact I give for the sake of the following observation.
It has been remark'd, as an imperfection in the art of ship-building,
that it can never be known, till she is tried, whether a new ship will
or will not be a good sailer; for that the model of a good-sailing
ship has been exactly follow'd in a new one, which has prov'd, on
the contrary, remarkably dull. I apprehend that this may partly be
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: the forest, rose over all, dark, rugged, and kingly.
Joe soon understood why the party traveled through such open forest. The
chief, seeming hardly to deviate from his direct course, kept clear of broken
ground, matted thickets and tangled windfalls. Joe got a glimpse of dark
ravines and heard the music of tumbling waters; he saw gray cliffs grown over
with vines, and full of holes and crevices; steep ridges, covered with dense
patches of briar and hazel, rising in the way. Yet the Shawnee always found an
easy path.
The sun went down behind the foliage in the west, and shadows appeared low in
the glens; then the trees faded into an indistinct mass; a purple shade
settled down over the forest, and night brought the party to a halt.
The Spirit of the Border |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Arizona Nights by Stewart Edward White: between a bulldog and a flamin' red sunset tromp on you so? It
looks to me like you're plumb spiritless."
Dutchy stopped wiping glasses for a minute.
"Just you hold on" says he. "I ain't ready yet. Bimeby I make
him sick; also those others who laugh with him."
He had a little grey flicker in his eye, and I thinks to myself
that maybe they'd get Dutchy on the peck yet.
As I said, I went broke in just six weeks and two days. And I
|
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 Betty Zane by Zane Grey: reappeared, descended into the room and ran into the west end of the
block-house. He kneeled before a porthole through which he pushed the long
black barrel of his rifle. Silas and Sullivan followed him and looked in the
direction indicated by his weapon. It pointed toward the bushy top of a tall
poplar tree which stood on the hill west of the Fort. Presently a little cloud
of white smoke issued from the leafy branches, and it was no sooner seen than
Wetzel's rifle was discharged. There was a great commotion among the leaves,
the branches swayed and thrashed, and then a dark body plunged downward to
strike on the rocky slope of the bluff and roll swiftly out of sight. The
hunter's unnatural yell pealed out.
"Great God! The man's crazy," cried Sullivan, staring at Wetzel's demon-like
Betty Zane |
