| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: that was almost too faint to be heard in the carriage on the way
home, said--
"Papa, I don't think I care to go to Paris, after all."
M'SIEU FORTIER'S VIOLIN
Slowly, one by one, the lights in the French Opera go out, until
there is but a single glimmer of pale yellow flickering in the
great dark space, a few moments ago all a-glitter with jewels and
the radiance of womanhood and a-clash with music. Darkness now,
and silence, and a great haunted hush over all, save for the
distant cheery voice of a stage hand humming a bar of the opera.
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: battleship scudding before it like a wooden shoe. And yet the
extraordinary Jasper B., although she shrieked and groaned and
seemed to stagger with the force of the blow, did not move either
forward or sidewise.
She flinched, but she stood her ground.
Second by second the storm increased in fury; in a moment it was
no longer merely a storm, it was a tempest. Cleggett, alarmed
for the safety of his masts, now ordered his men to take in sail.
But even as he gave the order he realized that it could no longer
be done. A cloudburst, a hurricane, an electrical bombardment,
struck the Jasper B. all at once. One could not hear one's own
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