| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: door, he were taking an inevitable but deprecatory precedence.
When, the next moment, Pemberton found himself alone with Mrs.
Moreen it was to hear her say "I see, I see" - stroking the
roundness of her chin and looking as if she were only hesitating
between a dozen easy remedies. If they didn't make their push Mr.
Moreen could at least disappear for several days. During his
absence his wife took up the subject again spontaneously, but her
contribution to it was merely that she had thought all the while
they were getting on so beautifully. Pemberton's reply to this
revelation was that unless they immediately put down something on
account he would leave them on the spot and for ever. He knew she
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: near me, that I felt an uneasiness on that side for a long time
after; at the same time it killed three young children, and having
run round my room went out, and killed a man and woman three hundred
paces off. When the storm is over the sun shines out as before, and
one would not imagine it had rained, but that the ground appears
deluged. Thus passes the Abyssinian winter, a dreadful season, in
which the whole kingdom languishes with numberless diseases, an
affliction which, however grievous, is yet equalled by the clouds of
grasshoppers, which fly in such numbers from the desert, that the
sun is hid and the sky darkened; whenever this plague appears,
nothing is seen through the whole region but the most ghastly
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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 Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: aunt was the Mother Superior, and from that stronghold should
transact the sale of the Leonardo. He had a purchaser ready, who
was willing to pay a large sum; a sum, Count Ottaviano whispered,
considerably in excess of the young lady's original inheritance;
once the picture sold, it could, if necessary, be removed by
force from Doctor Lombard's house, and his daughter, being safely
in the convent, would be spared the painful scenes incidental to
the removal. Finally, if Doctor Lombard were vindictive enough
to refuse his consent to her marriage, she had only to make a
sommation respectueuse, and at the end of the prescribed delay no
power on earth could prevent her becoming the wife of Count
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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: its view of the ocean, close at hand, tumbling along the base of the low
cliffs whose level tops intervened in lawnlike smoothness, it formed
a charming complement to the drawing room. As such it was in course
of use at the present moment; it was occupied by a social circle.
There were several ladies and two or three gentlemen, to whom
Mrs. Westgate proceeded to introduce the distinguished strangers.
She mentioned a great many names very freely and distinctly;
the young Englishmen, shuffling about and bowing, were rather bewildered.
But at last they were provided with chairs--low, wicker chairs,
gilded, and tied with a great many ribbons--and one of the ladies
(a very young person, with a little snub nose and several dimples)
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