| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: The incline widened. Huge pinnacles and monuments of stone stood
alone, leaning fearfully. Red sunset haze shone through cracks
where the wall had split. Jane did not look high, but she felt
the overshadowing of broken rims above. She felt that it was a
fearful, menacing place. And she climbed on in heartrending
effort. And she fell beside Lassiter and Fay at the top of the
incline in a narrow, smooth divide.
He staggered to his feet--staggered to a huge, leaning rock that
rested on a small pedestal. He put his hand on it--the hand that
had been shot through--and Jane saw blood drip from the ragged
hole. Then he fell.
Riders of the Purple Sage |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: woman--what can she do? She can knead the dough, ply the distaff, and sit by
the lattice and watch and wait."
"Let us postpone such melancholy thoughts until some future day. I have not as
yet said anything that I intended I wish to tell you how sorry I am that I
acted in such a rude way the night your brother came home. I do not know what
made me do so, but I know I have regretted it ever since. Will you forgive me
and may we not be friends?"
"I--I do not know," said Betty, surprised and vaguely troubled by the earnest
light in his eyes.
"But why? Surely you will make some little allowance for a naturally quick
temper, and you know you did not--that you were--"
Betty Zane |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: The endless wavering column of dust moved up the
trail, a swirling ant heap of broad straw sombreros, dirty
khaki, faded blankets, and black horses. . . .
Not a man but was dying of thirst; no pool or stream
or well anywhere along the road. A wave of dust rose
from the white, wild sides of a small canyon, swayed
mistily on the hoary crest of huizache trees and the green-
ish stumps of cactus. Like a jest, the flowers in the cac-
tus opened out, fresh, solid, aflame, some thorny, others
diaphanous.
At noon they reached a hut, clinging to the precipi-
The Underdogs |
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 A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: justices whom they might come before; that so whatever might be
their lot, they might not be repulsed now they had been also so long
from London. This his worship immediately granted, and gave them
proper letters of health, and from thence they were at liberty to travel
whither they pleased.
Accordingly they had a full certificate of health, intimating that they
had resided in a village in the county of Essex so long that, being
examined and scrutinised sufficiently, and having been retired from
all conversation for above forty days, without any appearance of
sickness, they were therefore certainly concluded to be sound men,
and might be safely entertained anywhere, having at last removed
A Journal of the Plague Year |
