| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: and breathlessly devour those pages of gesticulating villains,
epileptic combats, bosky forests, palaces and war-ships, frowning
fortresses and prison vaults - it was a giddy joy. That shop,
which was dark and smelt of Bibles, was a loadstone rock for all
that bore the name of boy. They could not pass it by, nor, having
entered, leave it. It was a place besieged; the shopmen, like the
Jews rebuilding Salem, had a double task. They kept us at the
stick's end, frowned us down, snatched each play out of our hand
ere we were trusted with another, and, increditable as it may
sound, used to demand of us upon our entrance, like banditti, if we
came with money or with empty hand. Old Mr. Smith himself, worn
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: The doctor answered, gently, "Sir, I understand and respect your
grief. But believe me, you are not in a state of mind to decide
about these matters now."
"You are mistaken," declared the other, controlling himself with
an effort. "I have been thinking about nothing else for days. I
have discussed it with my daughter, and she agrees with me.
Surely, sir, you cannot desire that my daughter should continue
to live with a man who has struck her so brutal, so cowardly, a
blow."
"If I refuse your request," the doctor answered, "it is in the
interest of your daughter." Then, seeing the other's excitement
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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 Before Adam by Jack London: care. I struck the earth within a yard of the nearest
one. They flanked me as I ran, and chased me into two
different trees out of the line of my pursuit of the
Swift One. I ventured the ground again, doubled back,
and crossed a wide open space, with the whole band
grunting, bristling, and tusk-gnashing at my heels.
If I had tripped or stumbled in that open space, there
would have been no chance for me. But I didn't. And I
didn't care whether I did or not. I was in such mood
that I would have faced old Saber-Tooth himself, or a
score of arrow-shooting Fire People. Such was the
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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 Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: carry out this stratagem, the duenna, far from raising an alarm,
is flattered, delighted, and compliant. The assaulter becomes
the assaulted. He flings her angrily to the ground, where she
remains placidly. He flies. The father enters; dismisses the
duenna; and listens at the keyhole of his daughter's nuptial
chamber, uttering various pleasantries, and declaring, with a
shiver, that a sound of kissing, which he supposes to proceed
from within, makes him feel young again.
In deprecation of the scandalized astonishment with which such a
story as this will be read, I can only say that it was not
presented on the stage until its propriety had been certified by
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