| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: bells had struck; Charley's crew was eating its dinner below forward;
Charley's guests were drinking their liquor below aft; Charley's correct
meal-flag was to be seen in the port fore rigging, as he had said, red
and triangular; and away off from me in the bow was the anchor watch,
whom I dreamily watched trying to light his pipe. His matches seemed to
be bad; and the brotherly thought of helping him drifted into my mind--
and comfortably out of it again, without disturbing my agreeable repose.
It had been really entertaining in John to tell Kitty that she ought to
see the inside of Kings Port; that was like his engaging impishness with
Juno. If by any possible contrivance (and none was possible) Kitty and
her Replacers could have met the inside of Kings Port, Kitty would have
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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 treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: righteousness by faith for the whole moral life is revealed in
such a heart-refreshing manner. Luther's appeal in this treatise
to kings, princes, the nobility, municipalities and communities,
to declare against the misuse of spiritual powers and to abolish
various abuses in civil life, marks this treatise as a forerunner
of the great Reformation writings, which appeared in the same
year (1520), while, on the other hand, his espousal of the rights
of the "poor man" -- to be met with here for the first time --
shows that the Monk of Witttenberg, coming from the narrow limits
of the convent, had an intimate and sympathetic knowledge of the
social needs of his time. Thus he proved by his own example that
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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 Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: did you say 'twas?" quoth the good gentleman.
"About so long," said Tom Chist, measuring off upon the spade,
"and about so wide, and this deep."
"And what if it should be full of money, Tom?" said the reverend
gentleman, swinging his cane around and around in wide circles in
the excitement of the thought, as he strode along briskly.
"Suppose it should be full of money, what then?"
"By Moses!" said Tom Chist, hurrying to keep up with his friend,
"I'd buy a ship for myself, I would, and I'd trade to Injyy and
to Chiny to my own boot, I would. Suppose the chist was all full
of money, sir, and suppose we should find it; would there be
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
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 Iliad by Homer: dismay, "what will become of me? It is ill if I turn and fly
before these odds, but it will be worse if I am left alone and
taken prisoner, for the son of Saturn has struck the rest of the
Danaans with panic. But why talk to myself in this way? Well do I
know that though cowards quit the field, a hero, whether he wound
or be wounded, must stand firm and hold his own."
While he was thus in two minds, the ranks of the Trojans advanced
and hemmed him in, and bitterly did they come to rue it. As
hounds and lusty youths set upon a wild boar that sallies from
his lair whetting his white tusks--they attack him from every
side and can hear the gnashing of his jaws, but for all his
The Iliad |
