| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: he addressed them, however. She thanked him dryly, as women do
when their brain is dragged into an intimate conversation.
"But," said Buck, and suddenly stood up, looking at her very
intently, "it isn't for your mind that I love you this minute.
I love you for your eyes, Emma, and for your mouth--you have the
tenderest, most womanly-sweet mouth in the world--and for your
hair, and the way your chin curves. I love you for your
throat-line, and for the way you walk and talk and sit, for the
way you look at me, and for the way you don't look at me."
He reached down and gathered Emma McChesney, the alert, the
aggressive, the capable, into his arms, quite as men gather the
Emma McChesney & Co. |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: Bed in the bush with stars to see,
Bread I dip in the river -
There's the life for a man like me,
There's the life for ever.
Let the blow fall soon or late,
Let what will be o'er me;
Give the face of earth around
And the road before me.
Wealth I seek not, hope nor love,
Nor a friend to know me;
All I seek, the heaven above
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: once before--the throne of Issus, with the reclining slaves,
and about it the ranks of soldiery.
We did not even give the men a chance to draw, so quickly
were we upon them. With a single cut I struck down two
in the front rank. And then by the mere weight and
momentum of my body, I rushed completely through the two
remaining ranks and sprang upon the dais beside the carved
sorapus throne.
The repulsive creature, squatting there in terror, attempted
to escape me and leap into a trap behind her. But this time
I was not to be outwitted by any such petty subterfuge.
The Gods of Mars |
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 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: Dorogomilov suburb.
The coup de theatre had not come off.
CHAPTER XXI
The Russian troops were passing through Moscow from two o'clock at
night till two in the afternoon and bore away with them the wounded
and the last of the inhabitants who were leaving.
The greatest crush during the movement of the troops took place at
the Stone, Moskva, and Yauza bridges.
While the troops, dividing into two parts when passing around the
Kremlin, were thronging the Moskva and the Stone bridges, a great many
soldiers, taking advantage of the stoppage and congestion, turned back
War and Peace |
