| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: idle love for Reginald, too! It is surely my duty to discourage such
romantic nonsense. All things considered, therefore, it seems incumbent on
me to take her to town and marry her immediately to Sir James. When my own
will is effected contrary to his, I shall have some credit in being on good
terms with Reginald, which at present, in fact, I have not; for though he
is still in my power, I have given up the very article by which our quarrel
was produced, and at best the honour of victory is doubtful. Send me your
opinion on all these matters, my dear Alicia, and let me know whether you
can get lodgings to suit me within a short distance of you.
Your most attached
S. VERNON.
Lady Susan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: sitting in the stout little craft of his poverty, his
insignificance and his independence, he had made some notable
voyages .... And so, when Susy Branch, whom he had sought out
through a New York season as the prettiest and most amusing girl
in sight, had surprised him with the contradictory revelation of
her modern sense of expediency and her old-fashioned standard of
good faith, he had felt an irresistible desire to put off on one
more cruise into the unknown.
It was of the essence of the adventure that, after her one brief
visit to his lodgings, he should have kept his promise and not
tried to see her again. Even if her straightforwardness had not
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: certainty that home-comings or children's kisses or Christmas
feasts were not for such as he,--never could be, though he sought
for the old time in bitterness of heart; and so, dully
remembering his resolve, and waiting for Christmas eve, when he
might end it all. Not one of the myriads of happy children
listened more intently to the clock clanging off hour after hour
than the silent, stern man who had no hope in that day that was
coming.
He learned to watch even for poor Lois coming up the corridor
every day,--being the only tie that bound the solitary man to the
inner world of love and warmth. The deformed little body was
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
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 Master Key by L. Frank Baum: But now the shouts of a vast concourse of amazed spectators reached
the boy's ears. He remembered that he was suspended in mid-air over
the crowded street of a great city, while thousands of wondering eyes
were fixed upon him.
So he quickly set the indicator to the word "up," and mounted sky-ward
until the watchers below could scarcely see him. They he fled away
into the east, even yet shuddering with the horror of his recent
escape from death and filled with disgust at the knowledge that there
were people who held human life so lightly that they were willing to
destroy it to further their own selfish ends.
"And the Demon wants such people as these to possess his electrical
The Master Key |
