| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: These words of Mr. Beverly made me feel that I did not want to do what
anybody could do. 'There is another kind of safety which I call
thoughtful safety,' said he. 'Thoughtful, because it requires you to
investigate properties and their earnings, and generally to use your
independent judgment after a good deal of work. And all this a trustee
greatly dislikes. It rewards you with five and even six per cent, but
that is no stimulus to a trustee.'"
"Something in me had leaped when Mr. Beverly mentioned six per cent.
Again I thought of Ethel and October, and what a difference it would be
to begin our modest housekeeping on sixty instead of forty thousand
dollars a year, outside of what I was earning. Mr. Beverly now rang a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: the new house, where Rodolphe had caught sight of the unknown fair
one's face.
For a hundred francs a month Rodolphe was relieved of all thought for
the necessaries of life. But, in consideration of the outlay the
Stopfer couple expected to make, they bargained for three months'
residence and a month's payment in advance. Rub a Swiss ever so
little, and you find the usurer. After breakfast, Rodolphe at once
made himself at home by depositing in his room such property as he had
brought with him for the journey to the Saint-Gothard, and he watched
Leopold as he set out, moved by the spirit of routine, to carry out
the excursion for himself and his friend. When Rodolphe, sitting on a
Albert Savarus |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: was by me door las' night when yer sister and her jude feller came
in late, oh, very late. An' she, the dear, she was a-cryin' as if
her heart would break, she was. It was deh funnies' t'ing I ever
saw. An' right out here by me door she asked him did he love her,
did he. An' she was a-cryin' as if her heart would break, poor
t'ing. An' him, I could see by deh way what he said it dat she had
been askin' orften, he says: 'Oh, hell, yes,' he says, says he,
'Oh, hell, yes.'"
Storm-clouds swept over Jimmie's face, but he turned from the
leathery old woman and plodded on up-stairs.
"Oh, hell, yes," called she after him. She laughed a laugh
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
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 Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: scalpel, put a card over a watch-glass containing thin shreds of
embryonic guinea-pig swimming in mauve stain, and dismantled her
microscope.
"I wish I understood more of biology," said Manning.
"I'm ready," said Ann Veronica, closing her microscope-box with a
click, and looking for one brief instant up the laboratory. "We
have no airs and graces here, and my hat hangs from a peg in the
passage."
She led the way to the door, and Manning passed behind her and
round her and opened the door for her. When Capes glanced up at
them for a moment, Manning seemed to be holding his arms all
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