| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: that sum sufficient, Monsieur le comte, to enjoy, in all countries,
the luxuries of life, and to satisfy all your wants and caprices?
Believe me, a young couple often feel the need of a third member of
the household; and, I ask you, what third member could be so desirable
as a good mother?"
"A little paradise!" exclaimed the old notary.
Shocked to see his client's joy at this proposal, Mathias sat down on
an ottoman, his head in his hands, plunged in reflections that were
evidently painful. He knew well the involved phraseology in which
notaries and lawyers wrap up, intentionally, malicious schemes, and he
was not the man to be taken in by it. He now began, furtively, to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: for her own carriage. James was sent back the next day, and
returned on Thursday with coach, horses, and William her coachman.
That matter being finished, and the trunks being unpacked, she
decided to take her first bath in the sea, expecting me to support
her through the trying ordeal of the surf. As we were returning
from the beach we met a carriage containing a number of persons
with a family resemblance.
When Aunt Eliza saw them she angrily exclaimed, "Am I to see
those Uxbridges every day?"
Of the Uxbridges this much I knew--that the two brothers Uxbridge
were the lawyers of her opponents in the lawsuit which had existed
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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 Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: case) I happened to be exalting my voice to enforce order, I was
using undue violence, and setting the girls a bad example by such
ungentleness of tone and language.
I remember one afternoon in spring, when, owing to the rain, they
could not go out; but, by some amazing good fortune, they had all
finished their lessons, and yet abstained from running down to
tease their parents - a trick that annoyed me greatly, but which,
on rainy days, I seldom could prevent their doing; because, below,
they found novelty and amusement - especially when visitors were in
the house; and their mother, though she bid me keep them in the
schoolroom, would never chide them for leaving it, or trouble
Agnes Grey |
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 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: she purty? Lookut her! Ain' she sweet, deh beast? Lookut her!
Ha, ha, lookut her!"
She lurched forward and put her red and seamed hands upon her
daughter's face. She bent down and peered keenly up into the eyes
of the girl.
"Oh, she's jes' dessame as she ever was, ain' she? She's her
mudder's purty darlin' yit, ain' she? Lookut her, Jimmie! Come
here, fer Gawd's sake, and lookut her."
The loud, tremendous sneering of the mother brought the
denizens of the Rum Alley tenement to their doors. Women came in
the hallways. Children scurried to and fro.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
