| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The White Moll by Frank L. Packard: instead of anger, impersonal anger, at this low, miserable act of
his, she felt ashamed of him. Her hand clenched fiercely as she
crouched there against the wall. It wasn't true! She felt nothing
of the sort! Why should she be ashamed of him? What was he to her?
He was frankly a thief, wasn't he? And he was at his pitiful
calling now - down to the lowest dregs of it. What else did she
expect? Because he had the appearance of a gentleman, was it that
her sense of gratitude for what she owed him had made her, deep
down in her soul, actually cherish the belief that he really was
one - made her hope it, and nourish that hope into belief? Tighter
her hand clenched. Her lips parted, and her breath came in short,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: columns on which the body rests; thick in themselves, that is, not
puffed out with veins or flesh; or else in riding over hard ground
they will inevitably be surcharged with blood, and varicose conditions
be set up,[13] the legs becoming thick and puffy, whilst the skin
recedes; and with this loosening of the skin the back sinew[14] is
very apt to start and render the horse lame.
[12] i.e. "the metacarpals and metatarsals."
[13] Or, "and become varicose, with the result that the shanks swell
whilst the skin recedes from the bone."
[14] Or, "suspensory ligament"? Possibly Xenophon's anatomy is wrong,
and he mistook the back sinew for a bone like the fibula. The part
On Horsemanship |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: "Fiend!" retorted Emma, and reread the telegram happily. She
folded it then, with a pensive sigh, "I hope she'll look like
Grace. But with Jock's eyes. They were wasted in a man. At any
rate, she ought to be a raving, tearing beauty with that father
and mother."
"What about her grandmother, when it comes to looks! Yes, and
think of the brain she'll have," Buck reminded her excitedly.
"Great Scott! With a grandmother who has made the T. A. Buck
Featherloom Petticoat a household word, and a mother who was the
cleverest woman advertising copy-writer in New York, this young
lady ought to be a composite Hetty Green, Madame de Stael,
Emma McChesney & Co. |
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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: but my thoughts were so intent upon my voyage over the sea in it,
that I never once considered how I should get it off the land: and
it was really, in its own nature, more easy for me to guide it over
forty-five miles of sea than about forty-five fathoms of land,
where it lay, to set it afloat in the water.
I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever man
did who had any of his senses awake. I pleased myself with the
design, without determining whether I was ever able to undertake
it; not but that the difficulty of launching my boat came often
into my head; but I put a stop to my inquiries into it by this
foolish answer which I gave myself - "Let me first make it; I
Robinson Crusoe |
