| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mayflower Compact: of Virginia; doe, by these Presents, solemnly and mutually
in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and
combine ourselves together into a civill Body Politick,
for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance
of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact,
constitute, and frame, such just and equall Laws, Ordinances,
Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time,
as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the
Generall Good of the Colonie; unto which we promise
all due Submission and Obedience.
In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Roads of Destiny by O. Henry: pictures on his left hand."
Outside, the ancient landau of Don Santos Urique rattled to the door.
The coachman ceased his bellowing. Senora Urique, in a voluminous gay
gown of white lace and flying ribbons, leaned forward with a happy
look in her great soft eyes.
"Are you within, dear son?" she called, in the rippling Castilian.
"/Madre mia, yo vengo/ [mother, I come]," answered the young Don
Francisco Urique.
IX
THE PASSING OF BLACK EAGLE
For some months of a certain year a grim bandit infested the Texas
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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 Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: where he was, but soon remembered--and so, with the same clanking
noise, the shadow disappeared.
He walked out into the court and paced it to and fro; startling the
echoes, as he went, with the harsh jangling of his fetters. There
was a door near his, which, like his, stood ajar.
He had not taken half-a-dozen turns up and down the yard, when,
standing still to observe this door, he heard the clanking sound
again. A face looked out of the grated window--he saw it very
dimly, for the cell was dark and the bars were heavy--and directly
afterwards, a man appeared, and came towards him.
For the sense of loneliness he had, he might have been in jail a
Barnaby Rudge |
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 Complete Poems of Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: He looked as one astonished, and made answer,
How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not
That I must be about my Father's business?
Often since then I see him here among us,
Or dream I see him, with his upraised face
Intent and eager, and I often wonder
Unto what manner of manhood he hath grown!
Perhaps a poor mechanic like his father,
Lost in his little Galilean village
And toiling at his craft, to die unknown
And he no more remembered among men.
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