| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: that."
Malbone looked at Kate, who smiled with delight, and put her
hand on that of Hope. Indeed, she kept it there so long that
one or two passing ladies stopped their salutations in mid
career, and actually looked after them in amazement at their
attitude, as who should say, "What a very mixed society!"
So they drove on,--meeting four-in-hands, and tandems, and
donkey-carts, and a goat-cart, and basket-wagons driven by
pretty girls, with uncomfortable youths in or out of livery
behind. They met, had they but known it, many who were aiming
at notoriety, and some who had it; many who looked contented
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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 Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: taking arms himself to despoil Fafnir, who still, transformed to
a monstrous serpent, broods on the gold in a hole in the rocks.
Mimmy needs the help of a hero for that; and he has craft enough
to know that it is quite possible, and indeed much in the
ordinary way of the world, for senile avarice and craft to set
youth and bravery to work to win empire for it. He knows the
pedigree of the child left on his hands, and nurses it to manhood
with great care.
His pains are too well rewarded for his comfort. The boy
Siegfried, having no god to instruct him in the art of
unhappiness, inherits none of his father's ill luck, and all his
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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 The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: a while if he persists in his opinion as to the true facts. And
at other times, Muller's own warm heart gets him into trouble. He
will track down his victim, driven by the power in his soul which
is stronger than all volition; but when he has this victim in the
net, he will sometimes discover him to be a much finer, better man
than the other individual, whose wrong at this particular criminal's
hand set in motion the machinery of justice. Several times that
has happened to Muller, and each time his heart got the better of
his professional instincts, of his practical common-sense, too,
perhaps, ... at least as far as his own advancement was concerned,
and he warned the victim, defeating his own work. This peculiarity
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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 The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: stretched across the yard over the dewy grass from the trees and
the top of the well, Matvey Savitch jumped up and began hurrying
about:
"Kuzka! get up!" he shouted. "It's time to put in the horses!
Look sharp!"
The bustle of morning was beginning. A young Jewess in a brown
gown with flounces led a horse into the yard to drink. The pulley
of the well creaked plaintively, the bucket knocked as it went
down. . . .
Kuzka, sleepy, tired, covered with dew, sat up in the cart,
lazily putting on his little overcoat, and listening to the drip
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