| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Riverman by Stewart Edward White: knew it, January and February had flown.
"We must pack up, sweetheart," said Orde.
"It's only yesterday that we came," she cried regretfully.
They took the train for Redding, were installed in the gable room,
explored together for three days the delights of the old-fashioned
house, the spicy joys of Grandma Orde's and Amanda's cookery, the
almost adoring adulation of the old folks. Then Orde packed his
"turkey," assumed his woods clothes, and marched off down the street
carrying his bag on his back.
"He looks like an old tramp in that rig," said Grandma Orde, closing
the storm door.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: six men of Company B are gone, two hours ago, hotfoot, to get Bill.
And they say - '
"'GO!' she shouts to me - and I went."
"Fast?"
"Don't ask foolish questions. It was an awful pace. For four
hours nothing happened, and not a word said, except that now and
then she said, 'Keep it up, Boy, keep it up, sweetheart; we'll save
him!' I kept it up. Well, when the dark shut down, in the rugged
hills, that poor little chap had been tearing around in the saddle
all day, and I noticed by the slack knee-pressure that she was
tired and tottery, and I got dreadfully afraid; but every time I
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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 Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: and the body must be accustomed to the rigors of a new climate
before it can be exposed to the chances of forest life. It is
the Americans themselves who daily quit the spots which gave them
birth to acquire extensive domains in a remote country. Thus the
European leaves his cottage for the trans-Atlantic shores; and
the American, who is born on that very coast, plunges in his turn
into the wilds of Central America. This double emigration is
incessant; it begins in the remotest parts of Europe, it crosses
the Atlantic Ocean, and it advances over the solitudes of the New
World. Millions of men are marching at once towards the same
horizon; their language, their religion, their manners differ,
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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 Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: landing leather, down which he had clambered until he could grasp
the hook at its end. This he fastened to a ring in the warrior's
harness, just before the man's weakened fingers slipped from
their hold upon the cordage.
Temporarily, at least, he had saved the life of his subject,
and now he turned his attention toward insuring his own safety.
Inextricably entangled in the mess to which he was clinging were
numerous other landing hooks such as he had attached to the
warrior's harness, and with one of these he sought to secure
himself until the storm should abate sufficiently to permit him
to climb to the deck, but even as he reached for one that swung
The Chessmen of Mars |
