| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: against the overflow, who is a naturalist, a geologist, a
humanitarian, a diver and a strong swimmer. I love
my Bowery. It was my cradle and is my inspiration.
I have published one book. The critics have been kind.
I put my heart in it. I am writing another, into which
I hope to put both heart and brain. Consider me your
guide, gentlemen. Is there arything I can take you to
see, any place to which I can conduct you?"
I was afraid to look at Rivington except with one
eye.
"Thanks," said Rivington. "We were looking up
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: judgment without warping it, and contrive to win in a bad cause
without maintaining that it is a good one, like the barrister. Perhaps
for this very reason an old attorney is the more likely of the two to
make a good judge.
A country attorney, as we have seen, has plenty of excuses for his
mediocrity; he takes up the cause of petty passions, he undertakes
pettifogging business, he lives by charging expenses, he strains the
Code of procedure and pleads in court. In a word, his weak points are
legion; and if by chance you come across a remarkable man practising
as a country attorney, he is indeed above the average level.
"I thought, sir, that you sent for me on your own affairs," said
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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 Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: plastered with mud. All about the camp they had erected a
wall of saplings pointed at the tops and fire hardened.
This palisade was a protection against both man and beasts,
and within it dwelt upward of two thousand persons, the
shelters being built very close together, and sometimes
partially underground, like deep trenches, with the poles
and hides above merely as protection from the sun and rain.
The older part of the camp consisted almost wholly of
trenches, as though this had been the original form of
dwellings which was slowly giving way to the drier and
airier surface domiciles. In these trench habitations I saw
Lost Continent |
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 Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: pickings," he says.
'Crazy as I was, I couldn't help laughing.
'"I've had my allowance of pickings and stealings," I says.
"Where are they taking my tobacco?" 'Twas being loaded on to a barge.
'"Up the Seine to be sold in Paris," he says. "Neither you nor I
will ever touch a penny of that money."
'"Get me leave to go with it," I says. "I'll see if there's justice to
be gotten out of our American Ambassador."
'"There's not much justice in this world," he says, "without a
Navy." But he got me leave to go with the barge and he gave me
some money. That tobacco was all I had, and I followed it like a
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