| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: England upbringing, and he was so made that the commercial aspect
of life often seemed meaningless and bore contradiction to his
deeper impulses.
So he sat silent, with head bowed forward, an organic force,
greater than himself, as great as his race, at work within him.
Wertz and Hawes looked askance at him from time to time, a faint
but perceptible trepidation in their manner. Sigmund also felt
this. Hitchcock was strong, and his strength had been impressed
upon them in the course of many an event in their precarious life.
So they stood in a certain definite awe and curiosity as to what
his conduct would be when he moved to action.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: revolution of 1830, have you not been seized by a sense of uneasiness,
weariness, sadness, at the sight of those long and over-crowded
galleries? Since 1830, the true Salon no longer exists. The Louvre has
again been taken by assault,--this time by a populace of artists who
have maintained themselves in it.
In other days, when the Salon presented only the choicest works of
art, it conferred the highest honor on the creations there exhibited.
Among the two hundred selected paintings, the public could still
choose: a crown was awarded to the masterpiece by hands unseen. Eager,
impassioned discussions arose about some picture. The abuse showered
on Delacroix, on Ingres, contributed no less to their fame than the
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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: out his instructions he would answer for the result. His idea
was that she should secretly retire to a convent of which his
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
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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 Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: a respectable Working Man with an angle or brain of 59 degrees
30 minutes. According to his account, my unfortunate Ancestor,
being afflicted with rheumatism, and in the act of being felt
by a Polygon, by one sudden start accidentally transfixed
the Great Man through the diagonal; and thereby, partly in consequence
of his long imprisonment and degradation, and partly because of
the moral shock which pervaded the whole of my Ancestor's relations,
threw back our family a degree and a half in their ascent
towards better things. The result was that in the next generation
the family brain was registered at only 58 degrees, and not till
the lapse of five generations was the lost ground recovered,
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
