| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: who manufactured chemicals; and there was Jim Dawes, a Harvard
classmate, in the dyeing business--just the man. But at the last
moment it occurred to him that suspicion might turn toward so
obvious an opportunity, and he decided on a more tortuous course.
Another friend, Carrick Venn, a student of medicine whom
irremediable ill-health had kept from the practice of his
profession, amused his leisure with experiments in physics, for
the exercise of which he had set up a simple laboratory. Granice
had the habit of dropping in to smoke a cigar with him on Sunday
afternoons, and the friends generally sat in Venn's work-shop, at
the back of the old family house in Stuyvesant Square. Off this
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: snuff, carefully wiped his nose, arranged the tongs and shovel, made
the fire, pulled up the heels of his slippers, pulled out his little
queue of hair which had lodged horizontally between the collar of his
waistcoat and that of his dressing-gown restoring it to its
perpendicular position; then he swept up the ashes of the hearth,
which bore witness to a persistent catarrh. Finally, the old man did
not settle himself till he had once more looked all over the room,
hoping that nothing could give occasion to the saucy and impertinent
remarks with which his daughter was apt to answer his good advice. On
this occasion he was anxious not to compromise his dignity as a
father. He daintily took a pinch of snuff, cleared his throat two or
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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 In Darkest England and The Way Out by General William Booth: And this is certainly our ultimate ambition, but for the present
distress something might be done on the lines of district nursing,
which is only in very imperfect operation.
I have been thinking that if a little Van, drawn by a pony, could be
fitted up with what is ordinarily required by the sick and dying, and
trot round amongst these abodes of desolation, with a couple of nurses
trained for the business, it might be of immense service, without being
very costly. They could have a few simple instruments, so as to draw a
tooth or lance an abscess, and what was absolutely requisite for simple
surgical operations. A little oil-stove for hot water to prepare a
poultice, or a hot foment, or a soap wash, and a number of other
In Darkest England and The Way Out |
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 Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: homeless and hearthless, he saith, `I will return to my house
whence I came out.' And, when he cometh, he findeth it swept and
garnished, but empty and unoccupied, not having received the
operation of grace, nor having filled itself with the riches of
the virtues. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other
spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in and dwell
there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the
first.' For baptism burieth in the water and completely blotteth
out the hand-writing of all former sins, and is to us for the
future a sure fortress and tower of defence, and a strong weapon
against the marshalled host of the enemy; but it taketh not away
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