| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris: MOST of them don't seem to mind."
Miss Bessemer stiffened a bit. "There are one or two girls that
do," she said quietly. "Frank Catlin had the decency to go home
last night," she continued; "and his brother wasn't any worse than
usual. But Jack Carter must have been drinking before he came.
He was very bad indeed--as bad," she said between her teeth, "as
he could be and yet walk straight. As you say, most of the girls
don't mind. They say, 'It's only Johnnie Carter; what do you
expect?' But one of the girls--you know her, Laurie Flagg--cut a
dance with him last night and told him exactly why. Of course,
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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 Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: Mr. Hoopdriver bowed over his folded arms.
"Miss Milton within?" said Dangle.
AND not to be disturved," said Mr. Hoopdriver.
"You are a scoundrel, sir," said Mr. Dangle.
"Et your service," said Mr. Hoopdriver. "She awaits 'er
stepmother, sir."
Mr. Dangle hesitated. "She will be here immediately," he said.
"Here is her friend, Miss Mergle."
Mr. Hoopdriver unfolded his arms slowly, and, with an air of
immense calm, thrust his hands into his breeches pockets. Then
with one of those fatal hesitations of his, it occurred to him
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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 Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: young scientists, and she was amazed at his shrewd insight into things,
his power, his uncanny material power over what is called practical
men. He had become a practical man himself and an amazingly astute and
powerful one, a master. Connie attributed it to Mrs Bolton's influence
upon him, just at the crisis in his life.
But this astute and practical man was almost an idiot when left alone
to his own emotional life. He worshipped Connie. She was his wife, a
higher being, and he worshipped her with a queer, craven idolatry, like
a savage, a worship based on enormous fear, and even hate of the power
of the idol, the dread idol. All he wanted was for Connie to swear, to
swear not to leave him, not to give him away.
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
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 Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: Yet I am strangely deceived, or they build up the image of a man,
with all his weakness, essentially heroic, and alive with rugged
honesty, generosity, and mirth.
Take it for what it is, rough private jottings of the worst sides
of Damien's character, collected from the lips of those who had
laboured with and (in your own phrase) "knew the man"; - though I
question whether Damien would have said that he knew you. Take it,
and observe with wonder how well you were served by your gossips,
how ill by your intelligence and sympathy; in how many points of
fact we are at one, and how widely our appreciations vary. There
is something wrong here; either with you or me. It is possible,
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