| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: heart of any woman who has lovingly planned the furnishing of her
drawing-room. Pop Henderson, after some preliminary wrestling
with collar, necktie, spectacles, and voice, launched forth on a
presentation speech that threatened to close down the works for
the day. Emma McChesney heard it, tears in her eyes. T. A. Buck
gnawed his mustache. And when Pop Henderson's cracked old voice
broke altogether in the passage that touched on his departed
employer, old T. A. Buck, and the great happiness that this
occasion would have brought him, Emma's hand met young T. A.'s
and rested there. Hortense and Henry, standing very close
together all through the speech, had, in this respect,
Emma McChesney & Co. |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: no self-respect, no application, restless mind.'"
Godard. "A good idea, gentlemen. Let us all leave our cards to-morrow
on Rabourdin inscribed in the same way."
Dutocq [leading Bixiou apart]. "Come, you'll agree to make that
caricature now, won't you?"
Bixiou. "I see plainly, my dear fellow, that you knew all about this
affair ten days ago" [looks him in the eye]. "Am I to be under-head-
clerk?"
Dutocq. "On my word of honor, yes, and a thousand-franc fee beside,
just as I told you. You don't know what a service you'll be rendering
to powerful personages."
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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 Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: over to Peter's and see if you can fetch his woman."
"No!" came from Mrs. Wade, brokenly, "I don't want no one. Just
let me alone."
The shattering anguish in his mother's voice startled Martin,
stirred within him tumultuous, veiled sensations. He was
unaccustomed to seeing her show suffering, and it embarrassed
him. Restless and uncomfortable, he was glad when his father
called him to help decide where to dig the grave, and fell the
timber from which to make a rough box. From time to time, through
the long night, he could not avoid observing his mother. In the
white moonlight, she and Benny looked as if they had been carved
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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 Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: reason they were lepers. Their hands and faces were like salt. One
of them wore a mask of linen. He was a king's son.
MYRRHINA. What is the voice that speaks to him at night time in his
cave?
FIRST MAN. We do not know whose voice it is. We think it is the
voice of his God. For we have seen no man enter his cavern nor any
come forth from it.
* * * * *
MYRRHINA. Honorius.
HONORIUS (from within). Who calls Honorius?
MYRRHINA. Come forth, Honorius.
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