| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: laced caps gleamed above the heads of the rest. About a hundred
persons followed the procession, the crowd gathering like a storm
cloud.
"Oh! it is my husband!" Eve cried out.
"DAVID!" exclaimed Lucien.
"It is his wife," said voices, and the crowd made way.
"What made you come out?" asked Lucien.
"Your letter," said David, haggard and white.
"I knew it!" said Eve, and she fainted away. Lucien raised his sister,
and with the help of two strangers he carried her home; Marion laid
her in bed, and Kolb rushed off for a doctor. Eve was still insensible
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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 Cavalry General by Xenophon: needs protection--a small number, be it observed, is just as capable
of vedette duty, as well able, say, to scan the distant horizon, as a
large; and by the same token men with no great confidence in
themselves or in their horses are not ill-qualified to guard, or
withdraw within shelter[8] the property of friends; since fear, as the
proverb has it, makes a shrewd watchman. The proposal, therefore, to
select from these a corps of observation will most likely prove true
strategy. But what then of the residue not needed for outpost duty? If
any one imagines he has got an armament, he will find it miserably
small, and lacking in every qualification necessary to risk an open
encounter.
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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 Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: over bar and dune, over shoal and marsh, among the silences of
the mango-swamps, over the long low reaches of sand-grasses and
drowned weeds, for more than a hundred miles. From the
shell-reefs of Pointe-au-Fer to the shallows of Pelto Bay the
dead lie mingled with the high-heaped drift;--from their cypress
groves the vultures rise to dispute a share of the feast with the
shrieking frigate-birds and squeaking gulls. And as the
tremendous tide withdraws its plunging waters, all the pirates of
air follow the great white-gleaming retreat: a storm of
billowing wings and screaming throats.
And swift in the wake of gull and frigate-bird the Wreckers come,
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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 Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: while back."
Burton turned and eyed the boy sternly. Willie
quailed. "I seen 'em," he cried. "Hones' I seen 'em. They
was here just a few minutes ago. Here's where they bur-
rit the dead man," and he pointed to the little mound of
earth near the center of the clearing.
"We'll see," commented Burton, tersely, and he sent
two of his men back to the Case farm for spades. When
they returned a few minutes' labor revealed that so
much of Willie's story was true, for a quilt wrapped
corpse was presently unearthed and lying upon the
The Oakdale Affair |
