| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Burning Daylight by Jack London: with himself. He had always looked upon this strength of his as
permanent, and here, for years, it had been steadily oozing from
him. As he had diagnosed it, he had come in from under the stars
to roost in the coops of cities. He had almost forgotten how to
walk. He had lifted up his feet and been ridden around in
automobiles, cabs and carriages, and electric cars. He had not
exercised, and he had dry-rotted his muscles with alcohol.
And was it worth it? What did all his money mean after all?
Dede was right. It could buy him no more than one bed at a time,
and at the same time it made him the abjectest of slaves. It
tied him fast. He was tied by it right now. Even if he so
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: Empress Regent. To her own people, up to this period in her
career, she was kind and merciful, and to foreigners she was
just." From the time of her return to the capital after their
flight in 1900 till the time of her death she became one of the
greatest reformers, if not the greatest, that has ever sat upon
the dragon throne. One cannot but wish therefore in the interests
of sentiment that it were possible to overlook many things she
did from 1898 to 1900, which in the interests of truth it will be
impossible to disregard. Nevertheless we should remember that she
was driven to these things by the filching of her territory by
the foreigners, and by the false pretentions of the superstitious
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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 Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: them, and then a loud shout.
"The one-sandaled man has come! The prophecy must be
fulfilled!"
For you are to know, that, many years before, King Pelias had
been told by the Speaking Oak of Dodona, that a man with one
sandal should cast him down from his throne. On this account,
he had given strict orders that nobody should ever come into
his presence, unless both sandals were securely tied upon his
feet; and he kept an officer in his palace, whose sole business
it was to examine people's sandals, and to supply them with a
new pair, at the expense of the royal treasury, as soon as the
Tanglewood Tales |
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 Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: hand on his shoulder.
"Come on, brother. Out with it. Let's have it all now."
He reached up for her hand and held it, desperately. "Oh,
Fan!" began Theodore, "Fan, I've been through hell."
Fanny said nothing. She only waited, quietly,
encouragingly. She had learned when not to talk. Presently
he took up his story, plunging directly into it, as though
sensing that she had already divined much.
"She married me for a living. You'll think that's a joke,
knowing what I was earning there, in Vienna, and how you and
mother were denying yourselves everything to keep me. But
Fanny Herself |
