| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: uppermost, where Ferguson had placed it on her entrance.
"Are your daughters here, Colonel McIntyre?" asked Kent as he took
a step toward the table. McIntyre's answer was drowned in an
outburst of cheering in the dining room and the rush of many feet.
On common impulse Kent and the others turned toward the doorway and
looked inside the dining room. Two officers of the French High
Commission were being held on the shoulders of comrades and were
delivering, as best they could amidst cheers and applause, their
farewell to hospitable Washington.
As his companions brushed by him to join the gay throng in the
center of the room, Kent turned back to pick up the envelope he had
The Red Seal |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: Riviere forcee, and returned quietly to his lodgings at Saint-Paterne,
where he got in by a window he had left open, and went to bed: later,
he was awakened by his new watchman, who found him fast asleep.
As he fell, Max uttered a fearful cry which no one could mistake.
Lousteau-Prangin, son of a judge, a distant relation to the family of
the sub-delegate, and young Goddet, who lived at the lower end of the
Grande rue, ran at full speed up the street, calling to each other,--
"They are killing Max! Help! help!"
But not a dog barked; and all the town, accustomed to the false alarms
of these nightly prowlers, stayed quietly in their beds. When his two
comrades reached him, Max had fainted. It was necessary to rouse
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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 The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: "At all events, while he was with the man--"
"Miss Flora was with the woman. It suited them all!"
It suited me, too, I felt, only too well; by which I mean
that it suited exactly the particularly deadly view I
was in the very act of forbidding myself to entertain.
But I so far succeeded in checking the expression of this view
that I will throw, just here, no further light on it than may be
offered by the mention of my final observation to Mrs. Grose.
"His having lied and been impudent are, I confess, less engaging
specimens than I had hoped to have from you of the outbreak in him
of the little natural man. Still," I mused, "They must do,
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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 Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: "Poor dear!" said Helda, softly.
Seseley had listened silently to this conversation. Now she inquired:
"What do you wish to become?"
"A mortal!" answered the fairy, promptly.
"A girl, like ourselves?" questioned the baron's daughter.
"Perhaps," said the fairy, as if undecided.
"Then you would be likely to endure many privations," said Seseley,
gently. "For you would have neither father nor mother to befriend
you, nor any house to live in."
"And if you hired your services to some baron, you would be obliged to
wash dishes all day, or mend clothing, or herd cattle," said Berna.
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
