| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: movies. There was a big crowd waiting in the lobby, us at the tail-end. She
began to push right through it with her 'Sir, how dare you?' manner--Honestly,
sometimes when I look at her and see how she's always so made up and stinking
of perfume and looking for trouble and kind of always yelping, 'I tell yuh I'm
a lady, damn yuh!'--why, I want to kill her! Well, she keeps elbowing through
the crowd, me after her, feeling good and ashamed, till she's almost up to the
velvet rope and ready to be the next let in. But there was a little squirt of
a man there--probably been waiting half an hour--I kind of admired the little
cuss--and he turns on Zilla and says, perfectly polite, 'Madam, why are you
trying to push past me?' And she simply--God, I was so ashamed!--she rips out
at him, 'You're no gentleman,' and she drags me into it and hollers, 'Paul,
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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 Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: We have hardly a minute to waste!"
"I skip forty years," said the Baker, in tears,
"And proceed without further remark
To the day when you took me aboard of your ship
To help you in hunting the Snark.
"A dear uncle of mine (after whom I was named)
Remarked, when I bade him farewell--"
"Oh, skip your dear uncle!" the Bellman exclaimed,
As he angrily tingled his bell.
"He remarked to me then," said that mildest of men,
" 'If your Snark be a Snark, that is right:
The Hunting of the Snark |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: `She laughed kind of flighty like, and whispered, "Good-bye, dear house!"
and then ran out to the wagon. I expect she meant that for you and
your grandmother, as much as for me, so I'm particular to tell you.
This house had always been a refuge to her.
`Well, in a few days we had a letter saying she got to Denver safe,
and he was there to meet her. They were to be married in a few days.
He was trying to get his promotion before he married, she said.
I didn't like that, but I said nothing. The next week Yulka got a postal
card, saying she was "well and happy." After that we heard nothing.
A month went by, and old Mrs. Shimerda began to get fretful.
Ambrosch was as sulky with me as if I'd picked out the man and
My Antonia |
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 Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: his brother, the courtiers and the lord mayor, mixed freely with
the crowd, commanding and directing them in their labours.
But now a new terror rose up amongst the citizens, for news
spread that the Dutch and French--with whom England was then at
war--and moreover the papists, whom the people then abhorred, had
conspired to destroy the capital. And the suddenness with which
the flames had appeared in various places, and the rapidity with
which they spread, leading the distracted inhabitants to favour
this report, a strong desire for immediate revenge took
possession of their hearts.
Accordingly all foreigners were laid hold of, kicked, beaten, and
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