| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: The old Beggar must have been very deaf, as he paid no attention
whatever to Bruno's eager shouting, but trudged wearily on, never
pausing until the child got in front of him and held up the slice of
cake. The poor little fellow was quite out of breath, and could only
utter the one word "Cake!" not with the gloomy decision with which Her
Excellency had so lately pronounced it, but with a sweet childish
timidity, looking up into the old man's face with eyes that loved
'all things both great and small.'
The old man snatched it from him, and devoured it greedily, as some
hungry wild beast might have done, but never a word of thanks did he
give his little benefactor--only growled "More, more!" and glared at
Sylvie and Bruno |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke: he should reach home in time for his engagement. But it did
not seem strange, as he went swiftly on with the river, to see
the first houses of the town, and the lumber-yards, and the
schooners at the wharf.
He made the canoe fast at the dock, and went up the Main
Street. There was the old shop, but the sign over it read,
"Wilson and Woods Company, The Big Store." He went on to the
house with the white iron images in the front yard. Diana was
still returning from the chase. The fountain still squirted
from the point of the little boy's parasol.
On the veranda sat a stout man in a rocking chair, reading the
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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 Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: He reached over and took from the teacher's
desk the sheet of paper Will had used to check off
the name of each man and how he voted. He held
it up in front of him and every man looked at it.
"You know me," he says. "You know I do not
break my word. And I promise you that unless you
do kill me here tonight--yes, as God is my witness,
I THREATEN you--I will spend every dollar I own and
every atom of influence I possess to bring each one
of you to justice for that man's murder."
They knowed, that crowd did, that killing a man
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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 Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: he descended.
The first thing von Schoenvorts did was to send for me and
announce that as a pirate I was to be shot early the next morning.
Then he explained that the U-33 would cruise in these waters for
a time, sinking neutral and enemy shipping indiscriminately, and
looking for one of the German raiders that was supposed to be in
these parts.
He didn't shoot me the next morning as he had promised, and it
has never been clear to me why he postponed the execution of
my sentence. Instead he kept me ironed just as he had been;
then he kicked Bradley out of my room and took it all to himself.
The Land that Time Forgot |
