| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: It may have been ten years ago, it may have been fifteen--and just how
long it was before the war makes no matter--that I received an invitation
to join a society for the promotion of more friendly relations between
the United States and England.
"No, indeed," I said to myself.
Even as I read the note, hostility rose in me. Refusal sprang to my lips
before my reason had acted at all. I remembered George III. I remembered
the Civil War. The ancient grudge, the anti-English complex, had been
instantly set fermenting in me. Nothing could better disclose its lurking
persistence than my virtually automatic exclamation, "No, indeed!" I knew
something about England's friendly acts, about Venezuela, and Manila Bay,
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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 Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: laughing, and sipping her coffee in a commonplace drawing-room
with commonplace people. But you know what you are saying."
"I do; I have not allowed myself to be led by surmises
or fancies. It was with no thought of finding Helen Vaughan
that I searched for Mrs. Beaumont in the dark waters of the
life of London, but such has been the issue."
"You must have been in strange places, Villiers."
"Yes, I have been in very strange places. It would
have been useless, you know, to go to Ashley Street, and ask
Mrs. Beaumont to give me a short sketch of her previous
history. No; assuming, as I had to assume, that her record was
The Great God Pan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: sentimental considerations, and very slightly by argument. "They
cannot resist the sight," writes a barrister, "of a mother giving
its child the breast, or of orphans." "It is sufficient that a
woman should be of agreeable appearance," says M. des Glajeux,
"to win the benevolence of the jury."
Without pity for crimes of which it appears possible they might
themselves be the victims--such crimes, moreover, are the most
dangerous for society--juries, on the contrary, are very
indulgent in the case of breaches of the law whose motive is
passion. They are rarely severe on infanticide by girl-mothers,
or hard on the young woman who throws vitriol at the man who has
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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 An International Episode by Henry James: Captain Littledale, it appeared, had gone to India; and of
several others of Mrs. Westgate's ex-pensioners--gentlemen who,
as she said, had made, in New York, a clubhouse of her drawing room--
no tidings were to be obtained; but Lord Lambeth was certainly
attentive enough to make up for the accidental absences,
the short memories, all the other irregularities of everyone else.
He drove them in the park, he took them to visit private collections
of pictures, and, having a house of his own, invited them to dinner.
Mrs. Westgate, following the fashion of many of her compatriots,
caused herself and her sister to be presented at the English
court by her diplomatic representative--for it was in this
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