| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: Helen Vincula, I want to give you a ticket to carry you away to the
high mountain, and I want you to go to stay a month in my house on
the mountain, and I want you to carry this little sick girl with
you. And when you are there, Sister Helen Vincula, my bread-man
will bring you bread, and my milk-man will bring you milk, and my
market-man from the cove will bring you apples and eggs, and all the
rest of the good things that come up the mountain from the warm
caves.''
``For,'' the Only-Just-Lady said, ``I want this little sick girl to
grow well again, and I want her little arms and legs and fingers to
get round and pink again.''
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: An Original: "My dear fellow, I've seen no galoshes in her
antechamber; consequently you can visit her without compromising
yourself, and play cards there without fear; if there ARE any
scoundrels in her salons, they are people of quality and come in their
carriages; such persons never quarrel."
Old man belonging to the genus Observer: "If you call on Madame
Firmiani, my good friend, you will find a beautiful woman sitting at
her ease by the corner of her fireplace. She will scarcely rise to
receive you,--she only does that for women, ambassadors, dukes, and
persons of great distinction. She is very gracious, she possesses
charm; she converses well, and likes to talk on many topics. There are
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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 Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: "Back? I saw him to-day, following me in the mill. His hair is
gray? I think it was he."
"No doubt. Yes, he's aged fast, down in the lock-up; goin' fast
to the end. Feeble, pore-like. It's a bad life, Joe Yare's; I
wish 'n' 't would be better to the end"----
He stopped with a wistful look at Holmes, who stood outwardly
attentive, but with little thought to waste on Joe Yare. The old
coal-digger drummed on the fire-plug uneasily.
"Myself, 't was for Lois's sake I thowt on it. To speak
plain,--yoh'll mind that Stokes affair, th' note Yare forged?
Yes? Ther' 's none knows o' that but yoh an' me. He's safe,
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
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 Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: could walk behind Sister Justina on all the shell-bordered walks
around the beds (but they must not step on the beds)--just one hour.
If a rain came it always did surprise them: those little girls were
always surprised when it rained! and they did not know exactly what
to do when it rained, though they knew almost always what to do when
the sun shone. One day when it rained it happened that the little
girls were all left over the one hour in the long room where all the
rows and rows of the little arm-chairs sat, and where all the little
girls learned to Count, and to say Their Prayers, and to Tell the
Time, and to sing ``Angels Bright,'' and to know the A B C blocks.
Sister Theckla, who always stayed the one hour in that room, had
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