| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: something perishable and changeable and growing under all the
fixity of heaven. In that endless, silent hall of desert there
was a spirit; and Cameron felt hovering near him what he imagined
to be phantoms of peace.
He returned to camp and sought his comrade.
"I reckon we're two of a kind," he said. "It was a woman who drove
me into the desert. But I come to remember. The desert's the only
place I can to that."
"Was she your wife?" asked the elder man.
"No."
A long silence ensued. A cool wind blew up the canyon, sifting the
Desert Gold |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: Platonic succession descended from her to him. His throne, however, was
at Athens, not at Alexandria. After the murder of the maiden
philosopher, Neoplatonism prudently retired to Greece. But Proclus is
so essentially the child of the Alexandrian school that we cannot pass
him over. Indeed, according to M. Cousin, as I am credibly informed, he
is the Greek philosopher; the flower and crown of all its schools; in
whom, says the learned Frenchman, "are combined, and from whom shine
forth, in no irregular or uncertain rays, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato,
Aristotle, Zeno, Plotinus, Porphyry, and Iamblichus;" and who "had so
comprehended all religions in his mind, and paid them such equal
reverence, that he was, as it were, the priest of the whole universe!"
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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 The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: make more mischief with." So he put the box in his pocket, together with the
bread and cheese.
Then he cautiously left the house and latched the door behind him. Outside
both moon and stars shone brightly, and the night seemed peaceful and
inviting after the close and ill-smelling kitchen.
"I'll be glad to get away," said Tip, softly; "for I never did like that old
woman. I wonder how I ever came to live with her."
He was walking slowly toward the road when a thought made him pause.
"I don't like to leave Jack Pumpkinhead to the tender mercies of old Mombi,"
he muttered. "And Jack belongs to me, for I made him even if the old witch
did bring him to life."
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
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 Case of the Registered Letter by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: the fact that I had parted from the man in anger, and that I had no
reason to be particularly fond of him. What shocked me most of all
was the sudden thought that John had taken his own life. It was a
perfectly natural thought when I considered his nervousness, and his
peculiar actions of the evening before. I believe I exclaimed,
'It was a suicide!' almost without realising that I was doing so.
The commissioner looked at me sharply and said that suicide was out
of the question, that it was an evident case of murder. He
questioned me as to Siders' affairs, of which I told only what every
one here in the village knew. I did not consider it incumbent upon
me to disclose to the police the disgrace of the man's early life.
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