| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: looked it over, and then I handed it to Andy to read. Andy read it,
but didn't add any remarks to my silence.
"The paper was for Bill, all right, and a genuine document, but it
appointed him postmaster of Dade City, Fla.
"Me and Andy got off the train at Little Rock and sent Bill's
appointment to him by mail. Then we struck northeast toward Lake
Superior.
"I never saw Bill Humble after that."
VI
THE EXACT SCIENCE OF MATRIMONY
"As I have told you before," said Jeff Peters, "I never had much
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: possession. But for two circumstances, I should have thought I had
been awakened by some new and vivid form of nightmare. First, the
flap of my tent, which I had shut carefully when I retired, was now
unfastened; and, second, I could still perceive, with a sharpness
that excluded any theory of hallucination, the smell of hot metal
and of burning oil. The conclusion was obvious. I had been
wakened by some one flashing a bull's-eye lantern in my face. It
had been but a flash, and away. He had seen my face, and then
gone. I asked myself the object of so strange a proceeding, and
the answer came pat. The man, whoever he was, had thought to
recognise me, and he had not. There was yet another question
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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 The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: guess he's getting around. I believe, Loudon, we'll give Trent a
chance. Trent was in it; he was in it up to the neck; even if he
couldn't buy, he could give us the straight tip."
"I think so, too," said I. "Where shall we find him?"
"British consulate, of course," said Jim. "And that's another
reason for taking him first. We can hustle that schooner up all
evening; but when the consulate's shut, it's shut."
At the consulate, we learned that Captain Trent had alighted
(such is I believe the classic phrase) at the What Cheer House.
To that large and unaristocratic hostelry we drove, and
addressed ourselves to a large clerk, who was chewing 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 Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: calculating eyes travelled from one to the other of his ruddy scholars.
He coughed, consulted his notes, and went through all the paces of
superiority. "I can find nothing about a body's being unable to stop,"
said he, gently. "If logic makes no appeal to you, gentlemen--"
"Oh, bunch!" exclaimed the second tennis boy, in the slang of his
period, which was the early eighties. "Look here. Color has no
existence outside of our brain - that's the idea?"
The tutor bowed.
"And sound hasn't? and smell hasn't? and taste hasn't?"
The tutor had repeated his little bow after each.
"And that's because they depend on our senses? Very well. But he
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