| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: which may also be found, so travellers say, among certain tribes of
savages.
As the colonel had calculated, Stephanie crossed the fictitious plain
of the Beresina at nine o'clock in the morning, when she was awakened
by a cannon shot not a hundred yards from the spot where the
experiment was to be tried. This was a signal. Hundreds of peasants
made a frightful clamor like that on the shore of the river that
memorable night, when twenty thousand stragglers were doomed to death
or slavery by their own folly.
At the cry, at the shot, the countess sprang from the carriage, and
ran, with delirious emotion, over the snow to the banks of the river;
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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 Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: but how?
There it was still at the pawn-broker's; no one would have such
an odd jewel, and the ticket was home in the bureau drawer.
Well, he must have it; she might starve in the attempt. Such a
thing as going to him and telling him that he might redeem it was
an impossibility. That good, straight-backed, stiff-necked
Creole blood would have risen in all its strength and choked her.
No; as a present had the quaint Roman circlet been placed upon
her finger, as a present should it be returned.
The bumping car rode slowly, and the hot thoughts beat heavily in
her poor little head. He must have the ring; but how--the
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: she began to cry, cry in bitter, gulping sobs. Will put his arm
around her, drew her comfortably close and said nothing.
As they jolted slowly down the darkening road, her head on his
shoulder, her bonnet askew, she had forgotten the Gerald of the
last two years, the vague old gentleman who stared at doors waiting
for a woman who would never enter. She was remembering the vital,
virile old man with his mane of crisp white hair, his bellowing
cheerfulness, his stamping boots, his clumsy jokes, his generosity.
She remembered how, as a child, he had seemed the most wonderful
man in the world, this blustering father who carried her before him
on his saddle when he jumped fences, turned her up and paddled her
Gone With the Wind |
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 Poor and Proud by Oliver Optic: it now. It is all we have left."
"I should hate to have that sold, mother."
"We must sell it, or pawn it."
"We will pawn it then."
"How shall we do it? I have not strength to rise, and they will
cheat you if you offer it."
"I will tell you what I can do, mother; I will get Simon Sneed to
go with me to the pawnbroker's shop. He is very kind to me, and I
know he will. He comes home to dinner at two o-clock."
This plan was agreed to, and Katy then went to work to clean and
cook the flounders.
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