| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: notice, three persons, a lady and two gentlemen, were
deliberately drawing near. The sergeant put his trust in the
convenient darkness of the night, and drove on to meet them. One
of the gentlemen, who was of a portly figure, walked in the midst
of the fairway, and presently held up a staff by way of signal.
'My man, have you seen anything of a carrier's cart?' he cried.
Dark as it was, it seemed to the sergeant as though the slimmer
of the two gentlemen had made a motion to prevent the other
speaking, and (finding himself too late) had skipped aside with
some alacrity. At another season, Sergeant Brand would have paid
more attention to the fact; but he was then immersed in the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain: That made me and Jim catch our breath, too. Then
we all stood petrified but happy, for none of us had
ever seen an ocean, or ever expected to. Tom kept
muttering:
"Atlantic Ocean -- Atlantic. Land, don't it sound
great! And that's IT -- and WE are looking at it -- we!
Why, it's just too splendid to believe!"
Then we see a big bank of black smoke; and when
we got nearer, it was a city -- and a monster she was,
too, with a thick fringe of ships around one edge; and
we wondered if it was New York, and begun to jaw
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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 Baby Mine by Margaret Mayo: the next moment she was chattering so rapidly and incoherently
over the 'phone that Aggie despaired of hearing one word that she
said, and retired to the next room to think out a new plan of
action.
"Say, Jimmy," stammered Zoie into the 'phone, "you've GOT to get
me a baby. If you don't, I'll kill myself! I will, Jimmy, I
will. You got me into this, Jimmy," she reminded him. "You've
GOT to get me out of it." And then followed pleadings and
coaxings and cajolings, and at length, a pause, during which
Jimmy was apparently able to get in a word or so. His answer was
not satisfactory to Zoie. "What!" she shrieked, tiptoeing to get
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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 Youth by Joseph Conrad: duty, 'I don't know where the cabin-table is.' It was
like an absurd dream.
"Do you know what he wanted next? Well, he
wanted to trim the yards. Very placidly, and as if lost
in thought, he insisted on having the foreyard squared.
'I don't know if there's anybody alive,' said Mahon,
almost tearfully. 'Surely,' he said gently, 'there will
be enough left to square the foreyard.'
"The old chap, it seems, was in his own berth, wind-
ing up the chronometers, when the shock sent him spin-
ning. Immediately it occurred to him--as he said after-
Youth |
