| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: and trunks, his great jack-boots, his crimson sash, his
belt bristling with horse-pistols, his crime-rusted cut-
lass at his side, his slouch hat with waving plumes,
his black flag unfurled, with the skull and crossbones
on it, and hear with swelling ecstasy the whisperings,
"It's Tom Sawyer the Pirate! -- the Black Avenger of
the Spanish Main!"
Yes, it was settled; his career was determined.
He would run away from home and enter upon it.
He would start the very next morning. Therefore
he must now begin to get ready. He would collect
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: gentle, pleasing face, served him as secretary, cashier, factotum, and
courier. During the first year of his settlement in Tours, a robbery
of considerable amount took place in his house, and judicial inquiry
showed that the crime must have been committed by one of its inmates.
The old miser had his two valets and the secretary put in prison. The
young man was feeble and he died under the sufferings of the
"question" protesting his innocence. The valets confessed the crime to
escape torture; but when the judge required them to say where the
stolen property could be found, they kept silence, were again put to
the torture, judged, condemned, and hanged. On their way to the
scaffold they declared themselves innocent, according to the custom
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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 Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: 'Yea, by God's death,' said he, 'ye love him well,
But would not, knew ye what all others know,
And whom he loves.' 'So be it,' cried Elaine,
And lifted her fair face and moved away:
But he pursued her, calling, 'Stay a little!
One golden minute's grace! he wore your sleeve:
Would he break faith with one I may not name?
Must our true man change like a leaf at last?
Nay--like enow: why then, far be it from me
To cross our mighty Lancelot in his loves!
And, damsel, for I deem you know full well
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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 Touchstone by Edith Wharton: there are no restrictions--" he was arrested by the sense that
these accumulated proofs of impunity might precisely stand as the
strongest check on his action.
"And Mrs. Aubyn had no family, I believe?"
"No."
"Then I don't see who's to interfere," said Flamel, studying his
cigar-tip.
Glennard had turned his unseeing stare on an ecstatic Saint
Catherine framed in tarnished gilding.
"It's just this way," he began again, with an effort. "When
letters are as personal as--as these of my friend's. . . . Well,
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