| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: did not render her distrustful of his sanity. It was
fortunate that Susan had not told Jim that she
disliked his habit. In that case he would have
deprived himself of that slight solace; he would not
have dreamed of opposing Susan's wishes. Jim had
a great pity for the nervous whims, as he regarded
them, of women -- a pity so intense and tender that
it verged on respect and veneration. He passed his
nieces' house on the way to the minister's, and both
were looking out of windows and saw his lips moving.
"There he goes, talking to himself like a crazy
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Summer by Edith Wharton: this place," she muttered to her pillow; and she
shrivelled at the vision of vague metropolises, shining
super-Nettletons, where girls in better clothes than
Belle Balch's talked fluently of architecture to young
men with hands like Lucius Harney's. Then she
remembered his sudden pause when he had come close to
the desk and had his first look at her. The sight had
made him forget what he was going to say; she recalled
the change in his face, and jumping up she ran over the
bare boards to her washstand, found the matches, lit a
candle, and lifted it to the square of looking-glass on
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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 Daisy Miller by Henry James: but that he unfortunately other occupations. "Other occupations?
I don't believe it!" said Miss Daisy. "What do you mean?
You are not in business." The young man admitted that he was not
in business; but he had engagements which, even within a day or two,
would force him to go back to Geneva. "Oh, bother!" she said;
"I don't believe it!" and she began to talk about something else.
But a few moments later, when he was pointing out to her the pretty
design of an antique fireplace, she broke out irrelevantly,
"You don't mean to say you are going back to Geneva?"
"It is a melancholy fact that I shall have to return to Geneva tomorrow."
"Well, Mr. Winterbourne," said Daisy, "I think you're horrid!"
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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 Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: crowded to the door, there were people kneeling without upon the
steps, and the sound of the priest's chanting came forth out of the
dim interior. It gave me a home feeling on the spot; for I am a
countryman of the Sabbath, so to speak, and all Sabbath
observances, like a Scottish accent, strike in me mixed feelings,
grateful and the reverse. It is only a traveller, hurrying by like
a person from another planet, who can rightly enjoy the peace and
beauty of the great ascetic feast. The sight of the resting
country does his spirit good. There is something better than music
in the wide unusual silence; and it disposes him to amiable
thoughts, like the sound of a little river or the warmth of
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