| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: scandalized, for I'd do it right over again to-morrow."
"You've got me all wrong," said I. "I'm not English; I'm not New York. I
am good American, and not bounded by my own farm either. No sectional
line, or Mason and Dixon, or Missouri River tattoos me. But you, when you
say United States, you mean United Kentucky!"
"Did you ever!" said she, staring at what was Greek to her--as it is to
most Americans. "And so if you had a sister back East, and she and you
were all there was of you any more, and she hadn't seen you since--not
since you first took to staying out nights, and she started to visit you,
you'd not tell her 'Fie for shame'?"
"I'd travel my money's length to meet her!" said I.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: "Please write out a permit for me to remove Turnbull's body, Dr.
Penfield."
Helen McIntyre took a step forward. Her eyes, twice their
accustomed size, shone brightly, in contrast to her dead white
face. Carefully avoiding her sister's glance she addressed the
coroner.
"I must insist," she began and stopped to control her voice. "As
Mr. Turnbull's fiancee, I -" she faltered again. "I demand that
an autopsy be held to determine the cause of his death."
CHAPTER III
THE ROOM WITH THE SEVEN DOORS
The Red Seal |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: her little foot.
"See, what beautiful dancing shoes!" said the soldier. "Sit firm when you
dance"; and he put his hand out towards the soles.
And the old lady gave the old soldier alms, and went into the church with
Karen.
And all the people in the church looked at Karen's red shoes, and all the
pictures, and as Karen knelt before the altar, and raised the cup to her
lips, she only thought of the red shoes, and they seemed to swim in it; and
she forgot to sing her psalm, and she forgot to pray, "Our Father in Heaven!"
Now all the people went out of church, and the old lady got into her carriage.
Karen raised her foot to get in after her, when the old soldier said,
Fairy Tales |
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 Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: composed of a substance similar to that of the heart itself; and that
there is always more warmth in the heart than in any other part of the
body- and finally, that this heat is capable of causing any drop of blood
that passes into the cavities rapidly to expand and dilate, just as all
liquors do when allowed to fall drop by drop into a highly heated vessel.
For, after these things, it is not necessary for me to say anything more
with a view to explain the motion of the heart, except that when its
cavities are not full of blood, into these the blood of necessity flows, -
- from the hollow vein into the right, and from the venous artery into the
left; because these two vessels are always full of blood, and their
orifices, which are turned towards the heart, cannot then be closed. But
Reason Discourse |
