| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: along the knife-edge Ridge Trail to where Rattlesnake
Canon led you down and back to your accustomed
environment.
To the left as you rode you saw, far on the horizon,
rising to the height of your eye, the mountains
of the channel islands. Then the deep sapphire of
the Pacific, fringed with the soft, unchanging white
of the surf and the yellow of the shore. Then the
town like a little map, and the lush greens of the
wide meadows, the fruit-groves, the lesser ranges--
all vivid, fertile, brilliant, and pulsating with vitality.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: he was taking this advantage to go home. Though he had made but
little way--a mere beginning yet--on this trail over to Sunk
Creek, here was already a Sunk Creek friend whinnying good day to
him, so he whinnied back and quickened his pace, and Molly
started to life. What was Monte doing here? She saw the black
horse she knew also, saddled, with reins dragging on the trail as
the rider had dropped them to dismount. A cold spring bubbled out
beyond the next rock, and she knew her lover's horse was waiting
for him while he drank. She pulled at the reins, but loosed them,
for to turn and escape now was ridiculous; and riding boldly
round the rock, she came upon him by the spring. One of his arms
The Virginian |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Frances Waldeaux by Rebecca Davis: over--innocent child as I was--to a man like Robert
Waldeaux, he killed in me the capacity for that kind of
love. It is not in me." She turned her strenuous face
to the sea and was silent. "It is not in me," she
repeated after a while. "I have but one feeling, and
that is for my boy. It is growing on me absurdly, too."
She laughed nervously. "I used to be conscious of other
people in the world, but now, if I see a boy or man, I
see only what George was or will be at his age; if I read
a book, it only suggests what George will say of it. I
am like one of those plants that have lost their own sap
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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 A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: Roses............................... 184
Rough Little Rascal, The............ 13
Selfish............................. 20
Song, A............................. 33
Sorrow Tugs, The.................... 40
Spring in the Trenches.............. 44
States, The......................... 160
Story Telling....................... 64
Stuck............................... 166
Success and Failure................. 77
Sugar Camp, At...................... 26
A Heap O' Livin' |
