| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The United States Bill of Rights: or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
II
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house,
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war,
but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,
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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 Mountains by Stewart Edward White: "if you go on fiddling down steep rocks with your
little old monkey work. Why don't you step out?"
Only Old Slob never did take a tumble. He was
willing to do anything for you, even to the assuming
of a pack. This is considered by a saddle-animal
distinctly as a come-down.
The Tenderfoot, by the irony of fate, drew a
tenderfoot horse. Tunemah was a big fool gray that
was constitutionally rattle-brained. He meant well
enough, but he didn't know anything. When he
came to a bad place in the trail, he took one good
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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 Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: league away along the highroad. The two longest sides of the square,
separated by an avenue of lindens, were built in the simple style
which expresses so well the peaceful and matter-of-fact life of the
bourgeoisie. No signs of commerce were to be seen; on the other hand,
the luxurious porte-cocheres of the rich were few, and those few
turned seldom on their hinges, excepting that of Monsieur Martener, a
physician, whose profession obliged him to keep a cabriolet, and to
use it. A few of the house-fronts were covered by grape vines, others
by roses climbing to the second-story windows, through which they
wafted the fragrance of their scattered bunches. One end of the square
enters the main street of the Lower Town, the gardens of which reach
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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 Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: family, and consequently, good Catholics, the Beauvisage father and
mother desired to have their son baptized. The rector of Cinq-Cygne,
the Abbe Goujet, whom they consulted, advised them to give their son
for patron a saint whose Greek name might signify the municipality,--
for the child was born at a period when children were inscribed on the
civil registers under the fantastic names of the Republican calendar.
In 1814, hosiery, a stable business with few risks in ordinary times,
was subject to all the variations in the price of cotton. This price
depended at that time on the triumph or the defeat of the Emperor
Napoleon, whose adversaries, the English generals, used to say in
Spain: "The town is taken; now get out your bales."
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