| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: neighbourhood, mounting an inland, irrigated valley. A great
variety of oaks stood, now severally, now in a becoming
grove, among the fields and vineyards. The towns were
compact, in about equal proportions, of bright, new wooden
houses and great and growing forest trees; and the chapel
bell on the engine sounded most festally that sunny Sunday,
as we drew up at one green town after another, with the
townsfolk trooping in their Sunday's best to see the
strangers, with the sun sparkling on the clean houses, and
great domes of foliage humming overhead in the breeze.
This pleasant Napa Valley is, at its north end, blockaded by
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: "You'll make me waste this holy day in chattering!" cried
Wicks. "Look here, when I sounded the well this morning,
there was two foot of water there against eight inches last
night. What's wrong? I don't know; might be nothing; might
be the worst kind of smash. And then, there we are in for a
thousand miles in an open boat, if that's your taste!"
"But it may be nothing, and anyway their carpenters are bound
to help us repair her," argued Carthew.
"Moses Murphy!" cried the captain. "How did she strike?
Bows on, I believe. And she's down by the head now. If any
carpenter comes tinkering here, where'll he go first? Down in
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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 Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: sir?"
"Yes--no--stop a little. No matter, you may go on; I'll follow
immediately."
I went instantly to Maximilian's room. He was lying asleep on a
sofa, at which I was not surprised, for there had been a severe
stag chase in the morning. Even at this moment I found myself
arrested by two objects, and I paused to survey them. One was
Maximilian himself. A person so mysterious took precedency of
other interests even at a time like this; and especially by his
features, which, composed in profound sleep, as sometimes happens,
assumed a new expression, which arrested me chiefly by awaking some
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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 Adieu by Honore de Balzac: grenadier that she had lived for a whole month in the forest, where
they had tracked her in vain, trying to catch her, but she had always
escaped them. I was then staying a few miles from Strasburg. Hearing
much talk of a wild woman caught in the woods, I felt a desire to
ascertain the truth of the ridiculous stories which were current about
her. What were my feelings on beholding my own niece! Fleuriot told me
all he knew of her dreadful history. I took the poor man with my niece
back to my home in Auvergne, where, unfortunately, I lost him some
months later. He had some slight control over Madame de Vandieres; he
alone could induce her to wear clothing. 'Adieu,' that word, which is
her only language, she seldom uttered at that time. Fleuriot had
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