| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: "Appear? Sure, she looked very sweet in her blue wrapper and her
hair down her back," answered O'Ryan with emphasis.
"She was not fully dressed then?"
"No, sir."
"Was Miss McIntyre composed in manner or did she appear frightened?"
asked Penfield. It was one of the questions which Kent had expected,
and he waited with intense interest for the policeman's reply.
"She was very pale and - and breathless like." O'Ryan flapped his
arms about vaguely in his endeavor to demonstrate his meaning. "She
kept begging me to hurry and get the burglar out of the house, and
after telling her that she would have to appear in the Police Court
The Red Seal |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: whole face was sadness unmasked, because only the animals were there to
perceive his true feelings. Sunlight and waving shadows moved together
upon the green of his pasture, cattle and horses loitered in the opens by
the stream. Down Box Elder's course, its valley and golden-chimneyed
bluffs widened away into the level and the blue of the greater valley.
Upstream the branches and shining, quiet leaves entered the mountains
where the rock chimneys narrowed to a gateway, a citadel of shafts and
turrets, crimson and gold above the filmy emerald of the trees. Through
there the road went up from the cotton-woods into the cool quaking asps
and pines, and so across the range and away to Separ. Along the
ridge-pole of the new stable, two hundred yards down-stream, sat McLean's
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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 Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: long and disastrous war, when both sides were exhausted and
bankrupt, the Bumbo of Jiam intervened in the interest of peace.
"My great and good friends," he said to his brother sovereigns, "it
will be advantageous to you to learn that some questions are more
complex and perilous than others, presenting a greater number of
points upon which it is possible to differ. For four generations
your royal predecessors disputed about possession of that island,
without falling out. Beware, oh, beware the perils of
international arbitration! - against which I feel it my duty to
protect you henceforth."
So saying, he annexed both countries, and after a long, peaceful,
Fantastic Fables |
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 Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: a loft, persecuted by calumny, half-starving on a income or a salary
of fifteen hundred francs a year, and regarded as crazy, or eccentric,
or imbecile.
"In short, my dear boy, the Marquise is a woman of fashion, and I have
a particular horror of that kind of woman. Do you want to know why? A
woman who has a lofty soul, fine taste, gentle wit, a generously warm
heart, and who lives a simple life, has not a chance of being the
fashion. Ergo: A woman of fashion and a man in power are analogous;
but there is this difference: the qualities by which a man raises
himself above others ennoble him and are a glory to him; whereas the
qualities by which a woman gains power for a day are hideous vices;
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