| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: glimpse of black-silk stocking. Then her eye traveled up her
smartly tailored skirt, up the bodice of that well-made and
becoming costume until her glance rested on her own shoulder and
paused. Then she looked up at Mrs. Orton-Wells. The eyes of
Mrs. Orton-Wells, Miss Susan H. Croft, and Miss Gladys
Orton-Wells had, by some strange power of magnetism, followed the
path of Emma's eyes. They finished just one second behind her,
so that when she raised her eyes it was to encounter theirs.
"I have explained," retorted Mrs. Orton- Wells, tartly, in
reply to nothing, seemingly, "that our problem is with the
factory girl. She represents a distinct and separate class."
Emma McChesney & Co. |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair: disconcerted when they found I did not agree with their
interpretation of my writings. I had told of corruption in
American politics; surely I must know that in England they had no
such evils! I explained that they did not have to; their graft,
to use their own legal phrase, was "in tail"; the grafters had,
as a matter of divine right, the things which in America they had
to buy. In America, for instance, we had a Senate, a
"Millionaire's Club", for admission to which the members paid in
cash; but in England the same men came to the same position as
their birth-right. Political corruption is not an end in itself,
it is merely a means to exploitation; and of exploitation England
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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 The Message by Honore de Balzac: face contrasting with her brown hair, and heard the guttural
tones of her voice. The havoc wrought in her drawn features
filled me with dumb amazement.
Those few hours had bleached her; she had lost a woman's last
glow of autumn color. Her eyes were red and swollen, nothing of
their beauty remained, nothing looked out of them save her bitter
and exceeding grief; it was as if a gray cloud covered the place
through which the sun had shone.
I gave her the story of the accident in a few words, without
laying too much stress on some too harrowing details. I told her
about our first day's journey, and how it had been filled with
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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 Critias by Plato: and image of the goddess in full armour, to be a testimony that all animals
which associate together, male as well as female, may, if they please,
practise in common the virtue which belongs to them without distinction of
sex.
Now the country was inhabited in those days by various classes of
citizens;--there were artisans, and there were husbandmen, and there was
also a warrior class originally set apart by divine men. The latter dwelt
by themselves, and had all things suitable for nurture and education;
neither had any of them anything of their own, but they regarded all that
they had as common property; nor did they claim to receive of the other
citizens anything more than their necessary food. And they practised all
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