| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Poems of Goethe, Bowring, Tr. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Both with significant looks, and also with grateful expressions,
And one secretly whispered into the ear of another
"If the master should turn to a bridegroom, her home is provided."
Hermann then presently took her hand, and address'd her as follows
"Let us be going; the day is declining, and far off the village."
Then the women, with lively expressions, embraced Dorothea;
Hermann drew her away; they still continued to greet her.
Next the children, with screams and terrible crying attack'd her,
Pulling her clothes, their second mother refusing to part from.
But first one of the women, and then another rebuked them
"Children, hush! to the town she is going, intending to bring you
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in
the western or black chamber the effect of the fire-light that
streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes,
was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the
countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the
company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.
It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the
western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and
fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand
made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken,
there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was
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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 Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: generous, truthful nature.
If the Donnellys had sometimes found the practical equality of life
in Londongrove a little repellent they were now gratefully moved by
the delicate and refined ways in which the sympathy of the people
sought to express itself. The better qualities of human nature
always develop a temporary good-breeding. Wherever any of the
family went, they saw the reflection of their own sorrow; and a new
spirit informed to their eyes the quiet pastoral landscapes.
In their life at home there was little change. Abraham Bradbury
had insisted on sending his favorite grandson, Joel, a youth of
twenty-two, to take De Courcy's place for a few months. He was a
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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 Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: After all, that man, now beatified by gastronomical enjoyments, hadn't
probably two ideas in his brain, and was thinking of nothing.
Consequently I felt rather ashamed of wasting my powers of divination
"in anima vili,"--of a doltish financier.
While I was thus making, at a dead loss, these phrenological
observations, the worthy German had lined his nose with a good pinch
of snuff and was now beginning his tale. It would be difficult to
reproduce it in his own language, with his frequent interruptions and
wordy digressions. Therefore, I now write it down in my own way;
leaving out the faults of the Nuremburger, and taking only what his
tale may have had of interest and poesy with the coolness of writers
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