| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: would continue in the direction of Lustadt, wondering what
in the world had become of their quarry. Or, if they guessed
that his car had gone over into the river, they would doubt-
less believe that its driver had gone with it. In either event
Barney would be given ample time to find his way to Tann.
He wished that he might find other clothes, since if he
were dressed otherwise there would be no reason to imagine
that his pursuers would recognize him should they come
upon him. None of them could possibly have gained a suf-
ficiently good look at his features to recognize them again.
The Austrian uniform, however, would convict him, or at
The Mad King |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: more often about the ultimate disposition of their `property.'
A new law was passed in the state, securing the surviving
wife a third of her husband's estate under all conditions.
Cutter was tormented by the fear that Mrs. Cutter would
live longer than he, and that eventually her `people,'
whom he had always hated so violently, would inherit.
Their quarrels on this subject passed the boundary of the
close-growing cedars, and were heard in the street by whoever
wished to loiter and listen.
One morning, two years ago, Cutter went into the hardware store and
bought a pistol, saying he was going to shoot a dog, and adding that
My Antonia |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: in multitude, heaped carcasses of kine. There are casks of
claret and kegs of brandy and legions of bottles bobbing in the
surf. There are billiard-tables overturned upon the sand;--there
are sofas, pianos, footstools and music-stools, luxurious chairs,
lounges of bamboo. There are chests of cedar, and toilet-tables
of rosewood, and trunks of fine stamped leather stored with
precious apparel. There are objets de luxe innumerable. There
are children's playthings: French dolls in marvellous toilets,
and toy carts, and wooden horses, and wooden spades, and brave
little wooden ships that rode out the gale in which the great
Nautilus went down. There is money in notes and in coin--in
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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 Purse by Honore de Balzac: up to Hippolyte's studio, on the pretext of seeing the portrait
in the good light in which it had been painted. She stood
speechless and motionless, but in ecstatic contemplation, in
which all a woman's feelings were merged. For are they not all
comprehended in boundless admiration for the man she loves? When
the painter, uneasy at her silence, leaned forward to look at
her, she held out her hand, unable to speak a word, but two tears
fell from her eyes. Hippolyte took her hand and covered it with
kisses; for a minute they looked at each other in silence, both
longing to confess their love, and not daring. The painter kept
her hand in his, and the same glow, the same throb, told them
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