| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: lighted by a jet of electric light resembling that of day itself.
Numerous exquisite dishes, which seemed to descend from heaven,
were placed successively before the guests, and the richest wines
of France flowed in profusion during this splendid repast, served
nine hundred feet beneath the surface of the earth!
The festival was animated, not to say somewhat noisy. Toasts flew
backward and forward. They drank to the earth and to her satellite,
to the Gun Club, the Union, the Moon, Diana, Phoebe, Selene, the
"peaceful courier of the night!" All the hurrahs, carried upward
upon the sonorous waves of the immense acoustic tube, arrived with
the sound of thunder at its mouth; and the multitude ranged round
From the Earth to the Moon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: Shelldrake and Mallory, and between us we finished the onions and
radishes, stuck the peas, and cleaned the alleys. Perkins, after
milking the cow and turning her out to pasture, assisted Mrs.
Shelldrake in the kitchen. At breakfast we were joined by Hollins,
who made no excuse for his easy morning habits; nor was one
expected. I may as well tell you now, though, that his
natural instincts never led him to work. After a week, when a
second crop of weeds was coming on, Mallory fell off also, and
thenceforth Shelldrake and myself had the entire charge of the
garden. Perkins did the rougher work, and was always on hand when
he was wanted. Very soon, however, I noticed that he was in the
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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 Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: the Lady Miao, together with others from the brush of the Empress
Dowager.
"And these are really the work of Her Majesty?" said Mrs.
Headland with a rising inflection.
"Yes, indeed," replied the Princess. "I watched her at work on
them. They are genuine."
It was some weeks thereafter that Mrs. Headland was again invited
to call and see the Princess, and to her surprise she was
introduced to the Lady Miao, with whom and the Princess she spent
a very pleasant social hour or two. When she was about to leave,
the Princess, who is the youngest sister of the Empress Yehonala,
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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 Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain: heaven and earth to save myself from exposure and destruction,
with a reasonably fair show of getting the thing covered up if I'm
let alone, and now this fiend has gone and found me out somehow or other.
I wonder how much she knows? Oh, oh, oh, it's enough to break
a body's heart! But I've got to humor her--there's no other way."
Then he worked up a rather sickly sample of a gay laugh and a hollow
chipperness of manner, and said:
"Well, well, Roxy dear, old friends like you and me mustn't quarrel.
Here's your dollar--now tell me what you know."
He held out the wildcat bill; she stood as she was, and made
no movement. It was her turn to scorn persuasive foolery now,
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