| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: She started at two o'clock, and her meeting with Eustacia
was hastened by the appearance of the young lady beside
the pool and bank which bordered her grandfather's premises,
where she stood surveying the scene, and perhaps thinking
of the romantic enactments it had witnessed in past days.
When Mrs. Yeobright approached, Eustacia surveyed her
with the calm stare of a stranger.
The mother-in-law was the first to speak. "I was coming
to see you," she said.
"Indeed!" said Eustacia with surprise, for Mrs. Yeobright,
much to the girl's mortification, had refused to be present
Return of the Native |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: ape-man. The momentum and weight of his body hurled
the German to the ground, powerful fingers prevented an out-
cry and, though the officer struggled, he had no chance and a
moment later lay dead beside the body of the dog.
As Tarzan stood for a moment looking down upon his kill
and regretting that he could not risk voicing his beloved vic-
tory cry, the sight of the uniform suggested a means whereby
he might pass to and fro through Wilhelmstal with the mini-
mum chance of detection. Ten minutes later a tall, broad-
shouldered officer stepped from the yard of the bungalow
leaving behind him the corpses of a dog and a naked man.
Tarzan the Untamed |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: saying which I have heard from your own lips.
SOCRATES: What is it, Nicias?
NICIAS: I have often heard you say that 'Every man is good in that in
which he is wise, and bad in that in which he is unwise.'
SOCRATES: That is certainly true, Nicias.
NICIAS: And therefore if the brave man is good, he is also wise.
SOCRATES: Do you hear him, Laches?
LACHES: Yes, I hear him, but I do not very well understand him.
SOCRATES: I think that I understand him; and he appears to me to mean that
courage is a sort of wisdom.
LACHES: What can he possibly mean, Socrates?
|
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 Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: sweet, clear, charmingly modulated voice:
"The feature of the skirt, ladies and gentlemen, is that it
gives a fulness without weight, something which the skirt-maker
has never before been able to achieve. This is due to the patent
featherboning process invented by Mrs. T. A. Buck, of the T. A.
Buck Featherloom Petticoat Company, New York. Note, please, that
it has all the advantages of our grandmother's hoop-skirt, but
none of its awkward features. It is graceful"--she turned
slowly, lightly--"it is bouffant" she twirled on her toes--"it
is practical, serviceable, elegant. It can be made up in any
shade, in any material-- silk, lace, crepe de Chine, charmeuse,
Emma McChesney & Co. |
