| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: unaccompanied by thought. The intellectual part of his
nature was already effaced; he had power only to feel, and
feeling was torment. He was conscious of motion.
Encompassed in a luminous cloud, of which he was now merely
the fiery heart, without material substance, he swung
through unthinkable arcs of oscillation, like a vast
pendulum. Then all at once, with terrible suddenness, the
light about him shot upward with the noise of a loud splash;
a frightful roaring was in his ears, and all was cold and
dark. The power of thought was restored; he knew that the
rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream. There was
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bab:A Sub-Deb, Mary Roberts Rinehart by Mary Roberts Rinehart: been. The thought of meeting you--er--again, and all that."
"You needn't rave for my benefit," I said freesingly. "You know
perfectly well that you never saw me before."
"Barbara! With your dear little Letter in my breast pocket
at this moment!"
"I didn't know men had breast pockets in their evening clothes."
"Oh well, have it your own way. I'm too happy to quarrel," he said.
"How well you dance--only, let me lead, won't you? How strange it
is to think that we have never danced together before!"
"We must have a talk," I said desparately. "Can't we go somwhere,
away from the noise?"
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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 Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: broached a matter to Gascoyne that had for some time been
digesting in his mind. It was the formation of a secret order,
calling themselves the "Knights of the Rose," their meeting-place
to be the chapel of the Brutus Tower, and their object to be the
righting of wrongs, "as they," said Myles, of Arthur his
Round-table did right wrongs."
"But, prithee, what wrongs are there to right in this place?"
quoth Gascoyne, after listening intently to the plan which Myles
set forth.
"Why, first of all, this," said Myles, clinching his fists, as he
had a habit of doing when anything stirred him deeply, "that we
Men of Iron |
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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: and seized others with his hand, till at length the left wing being
wholly shattered, he was forced, in the general rout, to betake
himself to the camp, having lost many of his friends and
acquaintance. Many, likewise, of the city spectators who had come
out, were killed or trodden underfoot. So that it was generally
believed in the city that all was lost, and the siege of Praeneste
was all but raised; many fugitives from the battle making their way
thither, and urging Lucretius Ofella, who was appointed to keep on
the siege, to rise in all haste, for that Sylla had perished, and
Rome fallen into the hands of the enemy.
About midnight there came into Sylla's camp messengers from Crassus,
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