| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: is what Fiction means.
CECILY. I suppose so. But it seems very unfair. And was your
novel ever published?
MISS PRISM. Alas! no. The manuscript unfortunately was abandoned.
[CECILY starts.] I use the word in the sense of lost or mislaid.
To your work, child, these speculations are profitless.
CECILY. [Smiling.] But I see dear Dr. Chasuble coming up through
the garden.
MISS PRISM. [Rising and advancing.] Dr. Chasuble! This is indeed
a pleasure.
[Enter CANON CHASUBLE.]
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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 Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: for many a day that he set out that noon to hunt deep in the
jungle for a herd of small deer which Schneider reported
that he and Schmidt had seen there the day before.
The direction in which Schneider had reported seeing the
deer was toward the south-west, and to that point the ape-man
swung easily through the tangled verdure of the forest.
And as he went there approached from the north a half-dozen
ill-featured men who went stealthily through the jungle
as go men bent upon the commission of a wicked act.
They thought that they travelled unseen; but behind them,
almost from the moment they quitted their own camp, a tall
The Beasts of Tarzan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: "'Very likely he took her with him. She is probably at Monte Carlo.'"
"'Scarcely in August, I fancy. And I'll tell you what, Ethel. I have been
counting it up. She has lost twenty-four thousand dollars in the Standard
Egg alone. It takes a good deal of surplus to stand that.'"
"'Serve her right,' said Ethel 'And I would say so to her face.'"
"September brought freshness to the stock market but not to me. Mr.
Beverly, like the well-to-do man that he was, remained away in Europe
until October should require his presence as a guiding hand in the
office. Thus was I left without his buoyant consolation in the face of my
investments."
"Petunias were being adjusted on a four per cent basis; Dutchess and
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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 La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: question that puzzled his master, his mother's eyes suddenly lighted
up, and she would smile and glance at him with hope in her eyes. Of
Marie she asked little. Her desire was with her eldest son. Already
she treated him, as it were, respectfully, using all a woman's, all a
mother's tact to arouse the spirit of high endeavor in the boy, to
teach him to think of himself as capable of great things. She did this
with a secret purpose, which Louis was to understand in the future;
nay, he understood it already.
Always, the lesson over, she went as far as the gate with the master,
and asked strict account of Louis' progress. So kindly and so winning
was her manner, that his tutors told her the truth, pointing out where
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