| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from 1492 by Mary Johntson: us hospitality.
The Admiral did not see that he was unhappy. The Admiral
saw always a vast main good, and he thought it pearl
and gold in every fiber. As yet, he saw no rotted string,
no snarl to be untangled. It was his weakness, and maybe,
too, his strength.
The sunset hung over this roadstead and the shore. The
mountains glowed in it, the nearer wood fell dark, the beach
showed milky white, a knot of palms upon a horn of land
caught full gold and shone as though they were in heaven.
Over upon the _Cordera_ they were singing. The long cacique-
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: "Well, if you will have the goodness to return to-morrow," said the
abbe, "I shall then have taken advice in the matter."
The quill-driver withdrew. The poor vicar, frightened at the
persistence with which Mademoiselle Gamard pursued him, returned to
the dining-room with his face so convulsed that everybody cried out
when they saw him: "What IS the matter, Monsieur Birotteau?"
The abbe, in despair, sat down without a word, so crushed was he by
the vague presence of approaching disaster. But after breakfast, when
his friends gathered round him before a comfortable fire, Birotteau
naively related the history of his troubles. His hearers, who were
beginning to weary of the monotony of a country-house, were keenly
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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 Dracula by Bram Stoker: spread out on the window sill, and is reaping quite a harvest of flies.
He is not now eating them, but putting them into a box, as of old,
and is already examining the corners of his room to find a spider.
I tried to get him to talk about the past few days, for any clue
to his thoughts would be of immense help to me, but he would not rise.
For a moment or two he looked very sad, and said in a sort of far away voice,
as though saying it rather to himself than to me.
"All over! All over! He has deserted me. No hope for me now unless I
do it myself!" Then suddenly turning to me in a resolute way, he said,
"Doctor, won't you be very good to me and let me have a little more sugar?
I think it would be very good for me."
Dracula |
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 Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: Under the leadership of this capable Watkins, the workmen rushed
at the vessel with the dash and vim of a gang of circus employees
engaged in putting up a big tent and making ready for a show. To
a casual observer it might have seemed a scene of confusion. But
in reality the work jumped forward with order and precision, for
the position of every bolt, chain, nail, cord, piece of iron and
bit of wood had been calculated beforehand to a nicety; there was
not a wasted movement of saw, adze, or hammer. The Jasper B., in
short, had been measured accurately for a suit of clothes, the
clothes had been made; they were now merely being put on.
Refreshed by the first sound sleep she had been able to obtain
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