| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs: eggin' 'em on, but holdin' 'em to it as long as you can. Do
you get me, bo?"
From the mixture of Spanish and English and Granavenooish
the sergeant gleaned enough of the intent of his commander to
permit him to salute and admit that he understood
what was required of him.
Having given his instructions Billy Byrne rode off to the
west, circled Cuivaca and came close up upon the southern
edge of the little village. Here he dismounted and left his horse
hidden behind an outbuilding, while he crept cautiously forward
to reconnoiter.
The Mucker |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: From Remonstrators with associate bands,
Good Lord, deliver us!'
ROYALIST RHYME, KIRKTON, p. 127.
LATE on the fourth night of November, exactly twenty-four
days before Rullion Green, Richard and George Chaplain,
merchants in Haddington, beheld four men, clad like West-
country Whigamores, standing round some object on the ground.
It was at the two-mile cross, and within that distance from
their homes. At last, to their horror, they discovered that
the recumbent figure was a livid corpse, swathed in a blood-
stained winding-sheet. (1) Many thought that this apparition
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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 A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: "So be it then," said Lord Menteith, "and let it rest in the
uncertainty in which your augury has placed it. I shall dine not
the less merrily among plaids, and dirks, and kilts to-day."
"It may be so," said Allan; "and, it may be, you do well to enjoy
these moments, which to me are poisoned by auguries of future
evil. But I," he continued--"I repeat to you, that this weapon
--that is, such a weapon as this," touching the hilt of the dirk
which he wore, "carries your fate." "In the meanwhile," said
Lord Menteith, "you, Allan, have frightened the blood from the
cheeks of Annot Lyle--let us leave this discourse, my friend, and
go to see what we both understand,--the progress of our military
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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 Crowd by Gustave le Bon: at bottom as religious as the Catholics of the Inquisition, and
their cruel ardour proceeded from the same source.
The convictions of crowds assume those characteristics of blind
submission, fierce intolerance, and the need of violent
propaganda which are inherent in the religious sentiment, and it
is for this reason that it may be said that all their beliefs
have a religious form. The hero acclaimed by a crowd is a
veritable god for that crowd. Napoleon was such a god for
fifteen years, and a divinity never had more fervent worshippers
or sent men to their death with greater ease. The Christian and
Pagan Gods never exercised a more absolute empire over the minds
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