| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: against the living, at the great Witch call of storms....
IV.
The charm of a single summer day on these island shores is
something impossible to express, never to be forgotten. Rarely,
in the paler zones, do earth and heaven take such luminosity:
those will best understand me who have seen the splendor of a
West Indian sky. And yet there is a tenderness of tint, a caress
of color, in these Gulf-days which is not of the Antilles,--a
spirituality, as of eternal tropical spring. It must have been
to even such a sky that Xenophanes lifted up his eyes of old when
he vowed the Infinite Blue was God;--it was indeed under such 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 Glasses by Henry James: dolls. A huge quarter of the place, the biggest bazaar "on earth,"
was peopled with these and other effigies and fantasies, as well as
with purchasers and vendors haggard alike, in the blaze of the gas,
with hesitations. I was just about to appeal to Flora to avert
that stage of my errand when I saw that she was accompanied by a
gentleman whose identity, though more than a year had elapsed, came
back to me from the Folkestone cliff. It had been associated on
that scene with showy knickerbockers; at present it overflowed more
splendidly into a fur-trimmed overcoat. Lord Iffield's presence
made me waver an instant before crossing over, and during that
instant Flora, blank and undistinguishing, as if she too were after
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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 Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: number, were a smaller class of men, their faces almost black with
tan and dirt. Though they still wore the queue, their heads were
not shaven, and mats and mops of stiff black hair fell over their
eyes from under their broad, basket-shaped hats.
They were barefoot. None of them wore more than two garments--the
jeans and the blouse. They were the lowest type of men Wilbur had
ever seen. The faces were those of a higher order of anthropoid
apes: the lower portion--jaws, lips, and teeth--salient; the
nostrils opening at almost right angles, the eyes tiny and bright,
the forehead seamed and wrinkled--unnaturally old. Their general
expression was of simian cunning and a ferocity that was utterly
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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 Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: Thus to all who needed help or comfort went the faithful Fairies; and
when at length they turned towards Fairy-Land, many were the grateful,
happy hearts they left behind.
Then through the summer sky, above the blossoming earth, they
journeyed home, happier for the joy they had given, wiser for the good
they had done.
All Fairy-Land was dressed in flowers, and the soft wind went singing
by, laden with their fragrant breath. Sweet music sounded through the
air, and troops of Elves in their gayest robes hastened to the palace
where the feast was spread.
Soon the bright hall was filled with smiling faces and fair forms, and
Flower Fables |
