| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: well, well, the puling chit shall not be deprived of her
plaything: 'tis only exchanging London dolls for
American babies.--Apropos, of babies, have you
heard what Mrs. Affable's high-flying notions of deli-
cacy have come to?
LETITIA
Who, she that was Miss Lovely?
CHARLOTTE
The same; she married Bob Affable of Schenectady.
Don't you remember?
Enter SERVANT.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: persons to her own crew must have rendered the situation of
those on board rather uncomfortable. The only place for the
men's hammocks on board being in the hold, they were
unavoidably much crowded: and if the weather had required the
hatches to be fastened down, so great a number of men could
not possibly have been accommodated. To add to this evil, the
CO-BOOSE or cooking-place being upon deck, it would not have
been possible to have cooked for so large a company in the
event of bad weather.
The stock of water was now getting short, and some
necessaries being also wanted for the floating light, the
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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 Blix by Frank Norris: pulling his beard. "I don't usually tell that story to strange
folk, but you remind me so of her that I guess I will."
Condy sat down on the edge of the bunk, and the mate seated
himself on the plush settle opposite the door, his elbows on his
knees, his eyes fixed on a patch of bright sunlight upon the deck
outside.
"I began life," he said, "as a deep-sea diver--began pretty young,
too. I first put on the armor when I was twenty, nothing but a
lad; but I could take the pressure up to seventy pounds even then.
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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 The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: the price of board paid by the late Abbe Chapeloud and that at which
the said Sophie Gamard agrees to take into her house, on the above-
named stipulated condition, the said Francois Birotteau; and whereas
it is understood that the undersigned Francois Birotteau is not able
for some years to pay the full price charged to the other boarders of
Mademoiselle Gamard, more especially the Abbe Troubert; the said
Birotteau does hereby engage, in consideration of certain sums of
money advanced by the undersigned Sophie Gamard, to leave her, as
indemnity, all the household property of which he may die possessed,
or to transfer the same to her should he, for any reason whatever or
at any time, voluntarily give up the apartment now leased to him, and
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