| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Aspern Papers by Henry James: "You told her you found it so."
"So I did; but everyone doesn't think so."
"No, of course not, or more people would try."
"Well, if she is capable of making that reflection she
is capable of making this further one," I went on:
"that I must have a particular reason for not doing as others do,
in spite of the interest she offers--for not leaving her alone."
Miss Tita looked as if she failed to grasp this rather
complicated proposition; so I continued, "If you have not told
her what I said to you the other night may she not at least
have guessed it?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: them, everyone thinks that the utmost limits of human power are
to be discerned in proximity to himself, and none seeks any
longer to resist the inevitable law of his destiny. Not indeed
that an aristocratic people absolutely contests man's faculty of
self- improvement, but they do not hold it to be indefinite;
amelioration they conceive, but not change: they imagine that the
future condition of society may be better, but not essentially
different; and whilst they admit that mankind has made vast
strides in improvement, and may still have some to make, they
assign to it beforehand certain impassable limits. Thus they do
not presume that they have arrived at the supreme good or at
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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 Menexenus by Plato: who has made so many good speakers, and one who was the best among all the
Hellenes--Pericles, the son of Xanthippus.
MENEXENUS: And who is she? I suppose that you mean Aspasia.
SOCRATES: Yes, I do; and besides her I had Connus, the son of Metrobius,
as a master, and he was my master in music, as she was in rhetoric. No
wonder that a man who has received such an education should be a finished
speaker; even the pupil of very inferior masters, say, for example, one who
had learned music of Lamprus, and rhetoric of Antiphon the Rhamnusian,
might make a figure if he were to praise the Athenians among the Athenians.
MENEXENUS: And what would you be able to say if you had to speak?
SOCRATES: Of my own wit, most likely nothing; but yesterday I heard
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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 My Antonia by Willa Cather: Whenever the dancers paused to change partners or to catch breath,
he would boom out softly, `Who's that goin' back on me?
One of these city gentlemen, I bet! Now, you girls, you ain't goin'
to let that floor get cold?'
Antonia seemed frightened at first, and kept looking
questioningly at Lena and Tiny over Willy O'Reilly's shoulder.
Tiny Soderball was trim and slender, with lively little
feet and pretty ankles--she wore her dresses very short.
She was quicker in speech, lighter in movement and manner than
the other girls. Mary Dusak was broad and brown of countenance,
slightly marked by smallpox, but handsome for all that.
My Antonia |
