| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: sick-room. She ruled despotically in the house, and everything in it
was submitted to this feminine espionage. All day she sat in the salon
adjoining her husband's room, so that she could hear every syllable
that he uttered, every least movement that he made. She had a bed put
there for her of a night, but she did not sleep very much. The doctor
was entirely in her interests. Such wifely devotion seemed
praiseworthy enough. With the natural subtlety of perfidy, she took
care to disguise M. de Restaud's repugnance for her, and feigned
distress so perfectly that she gained a sort of celebrity. Strait-
laced women were even found to say that she had expiated her sins.
Always before her eyes she beheld a vision of the destitution to
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: it has been like living under stagnant water."
"I would rather bear tediousness, dear, than have time
made short by such means as have shortened mine."
"In what way is that? You have been thinking you wished
you did not love me."
"How can a man wish that, and yet love on? No, Eustacia."
"Men can, women cannot."
"Well, whatever I may have thought, one thing is certain--I
do love you--past all compass and description. I love you
to oppressiveness--I, who have never before felt more than
a pleasant passing fancy for any woman I have ever seen.
Return of the Native |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: high born. From the court her family is, and friends
from the Emperor, und alles. Sure! Frau Nirlanger, she
is different from the rest. Books she likes, und
meetings, und all such komisch things. And what you
think!"
"I don't know," I gasped, hanging on her words, "what
DO I think?"
"She meets this here Konrad Nirlanger, and
falls with him in love. Und her family is mad! But
schrecklich mad! Forty years old she is, and from a
noble family, and Konrad Nirlanger is only a student from
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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 Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: She looked at him anxiously. She was beginning to be alarmed at
his persistence.
"Maybe I've been playing too many periscous games."
"Not periscous, Polly, promiscuous."
"Pro-mis-cuous," she repeated, haltingly. "What does that mean?"
"Indiscriminate." He rubbed his forehead as he saw the puzzled
look on her face. "Mixed up," he explained, more simply.
"Our game wasn't mixed up." She was thinking of the one to which
the widow had objected. "Is it promiscuous to catch somebody?"
"It depends upon whom you catch," he answered with a dry,
whimsical smile.
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