| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: XXI: Hortense's Cigarette Goes Out
John was the riddle that I could not read. Among my last actions of this
day was one that had been almost my earliest, and bedtime found me
staring at his letter, as I stood, half undressed, by my table. The calm
moon brought back Udolpho and what had been said there, as it now shone
down upon the garden where Hortense had danced. I stared at John's letter
as if its words were new to me, instead of being words that I could have
fluently repeated from beginning to end without an error; it was as if,
by virtue of mere gazing at the document, I hoped to wring more meaning
from it, to divine what had been in the mind which had composed it; but
instead of this, I seemed to get less from it, instead of more. Had the
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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 Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: quieter, and a BATEAU can cross from the main shore. Francois was
frightened when the others did not come back in the evening. He
made his way around to St. Joseph d'Alma, and got a boat to come up
and look for their bodies. He found them on the shore, alive and
very hungry. But all that has nothing to do with the story.
Nor does it make any difference how Alden spent the rest of his
summer in the woods, what kind of fishing he had, or what moved him
to leave five hundred dollars with Jean when he went away. That is
all padding: leave it out. The first point of interest is what Jean
did with the money. A suit of clothes, a new stove, and a set of
kitchen utensils for the log house opposite Grosse Ile, a trip to
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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 Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: bread, who sowed and reaped for us, who watched over our happiness,
who guided us through life, who ruled so kindly among us. NOW, I may
speak in his praise, and say that he never caused me the slightest
sorrow; he was good and strong and patient. Even while we were
torturing him for the sake of his health, so precious to us, 'Let it
be, children, it is all no use,' the dear lamb said, just in the same
tone of voice with which he had said, 'Everything is all right,
friends,' only a few days before. Ah! grand Dieu! a few days ago! A
few days have been enough to take away the gladness from our house and
to darken our lives, to close the eyes of the best, most upright, most
revered of men. No one could plow as he could. Night or day, he would
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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 Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: you."
They stood side by side examining it. I was going to ask to see the rubies
when the phone rang, and Gatsby took up the receiver.
"Yes. . . . well, I can't talk now. . . . I can't talk now, old
sport. . . . I said a SMALL town. . . . he must know what a small town
is. . . . well, he's no use to us if Detroit is his idea of a small
town. . . ."
He rang off.
"Come here QUICK!" cried Daisy at the window.
The rain was still falling, but the darkness had parted in the west,
and there was a pink and golden billow of foamy clouds above the sea.
The Great Gatsby |
