| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: "But, Emma, you're joking!"
She stared, suddenly serious.
"You mean--you don't like it!"
"Like it! For a fancy-dress costume, yes; but as a petticoat
for every-day wear, to be made up by us for our customers! But
of course you're playing a trick on me." He laughed a little
weakly and came toward her. "You can't catch me that way, old
girl! It's darned becoming, Emma--I'll say that." He bent down,
smiling. "I'll allow you to kiss me. And then try me with the
real surprise, will you?"
Her coquetry vanished. Her smile fled with it. Her pretty pose
Emma McChesney & Co. |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: "Yes, that's true," said the aunt. "It is a dreadful business.
She suffered, in reality, because of me."
"Not at all, aunt. I should have taken the papers without you all
the same.'
"Allow me to know better," said the aunt. "You see," she went on
to Nekhludoff, "it all happened because a certain person asked me
to keep his papers for a time, and I, having no house at the
time, brought them to her. And that very night the police
searched her room and took her and the papers, and have kept her
up to now, demanding that she should say from whom she had them."
"But I never told them," said Shoustova quickly, pulling
Resurrection |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: fancied that he was smitten, and that the words which I had uttered like
arrows had wounded him, and so without waiting to hear more I got up, and
throwing my coat about him crept under his threadbare cloak, as the time of
year was winter, and there I lay during the whole night having this
wonderful monster in my arms. This again, Socrates, will not be denied by
you. And yet, notwithstanding all, he was so superior to my solicitations,
so contemptuous and derisive and disdainful of my beauty--which really, as
I fancied, had some attractions--hear, O judges; for judges you shall be of
the haughty virtue of Socrates--nothing more happened, but in the morning
when I awoke (let all the gods and goddesses be my witnesses) I arose as
from the couch of a father or an elder brother.
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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 Mansion by Henry van Dyke: by
his songs, but by his wise and patient works of practical aid--a
paralyzed
woman who had lain for thirty years upon her bed, helpless but
not hopeless, succeeding by a miracle of courage in her single
aim,
never to complain, but always to impart a bit of joy and peace to
every one who came near her. All these, and other persons like
them,
people of little consideration in the world, but now seemingly
all full of
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