| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: The stale heat of the long day in town, the dusty promiscuity of
the suburban train were now but the requisite foil to an evening
of scented breezes and tranquil talk. They had been married more
than a year, and each home-coming still reflected the freshness of
their first day together. If, indeed, their happiness had a flaw,
it was in resembling too closely the bright impermanence of their
surroundings. Their love as yet was but the gay tent of holiday-
makers.
His wife looked up with a smile. The country life suited her, and
her beauty had gained depth from a stillness in which certain
faces might have grown opaque.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: vessels that pass the river, and have the sole oyster-fishing in
the whole river, which is considerable. Mr. Carew, author of the
"Survey of Cornwall," tells us a strange story of a dog in this
town, of whom it was observed that if they gave him any large bone
or piece of meat, he immediately went out of doors with it, and
after having disappeared for some time would return again; upon
which, after some time, they watched him, when, to their great
surprise, they found that the poor charitable creature carried what
he so got to an old decrepit mastiff, which lay in a nest that he
had made among the brakes a little way out of the town, and was
blind, so that he could not help himself; and there this creature
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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 Extracts From Adam's Diary by Mark Twain: and "momma." It is certainly a new species. This resemblance to
words may be purely accidental, of course, and may have no purpose
or meaning; but even in that case it is still extraordinary, and
is a thing which no other bear can do. This imitation of speech,
taken together with general absence of fur and entire absence of
tail, sufficiently indicates that this is a new kind of bear. The
further study of it will be exceedingly interesting. Meantime I
will go off on a far expedition among the forests of the North and
make an exhaustive search. There must certainly be another one
somewhere, and this one will be less dangerous when it has company
of its own species. I will go straightway; but I will muzzle this
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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 Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: sprang up with an exclamation: "Through the keyhole?"
"Through the keyhole," answered Muller.
"It is scarcely possible."
"Shall we try it?"
"Yes, yes, you do it." Even the usually indifferent old chief of
police was breathing more hastily now. Muller took a roll of paper
and a small pistol out of his pocket. He unrolled the paper, which
represented the figure of a French soldier with a marked target on
the breast. The detective pinned the paper on the back of the chair
in which Professor Fellner had been seated when he met his death.
"But the key was in the hole," objected Bauer suddenly.
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