| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: "I should think 'twas," agreed Mrs. Fosdick, smoothing down
her black silk apron. "'Tis a place worth visitin' when you once
get there. Some o' the old folks was kind o' fearful about it.
'Twas 'counted a great place in old Indian times; you can
pick up their stone tools 'most any time if you hunt about.
There's a beautiful spring o' water, too. Yes, I remember when
they used to tell queer stories about Shell-heap Island. Some said
'twas a great bangeing-place for the Indians, and an old chief
resided there once that ruled the winds; and others said they'd
always heard that once the Indians come down from up country an'
left a captive there without any bo't, an' 'twas too far to swim
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: And those children did not walk in rows.
And those children did not do things by one hours.
And those children did not wash their hands in little white basins
sitting in rows on long back gallery benches.
It was strange to Bessie Bell that those children did not sit in
rows to eat tiny cakes with caraway seeds in them while Sister
Angela sat on the bench under the great magnolia-tree and looked at
the row of little girls.
It was so very strange to Bessie Bell that these children wore all
sorts of clothes--all sorts! Not just blue dresses, and blue checked
aprons.
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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 Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: man is made to believe that a woman, looking upon him
thoughtfully, has lost herself in meditation over him, that man
needs be an extremely cold-blooded individual in order to trim his
sheets, set a lookout, and steer clear.
"I was just wondering what you wanted to see me about," he
explained, drawing his chair up to hers by the table.
"Floyd," she looked him steadily in the eyes, "I am tired of the
whole business. I want to go away. I can't live it out here till
the river breaks. If I try, I'll die. I am sure of it. I want
to quit it all and go away, and I want to do it at once."
She laid her hand in mute appeal upon the back of his, which
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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 Theaetetus by Plato: and the beautiful are abstractions of another kind, which exist in relation
and which above all others the mind perceives in herself, comparing within
her past, present, and future. For example; we know a thing to be hard or
soft by the touch, of which the perception is given at birth to men and
animals. But the essence of hardness or softness, or the fact that this
hardness is, and is the opposite of softness, is slowly learned by
reflection and experience. Mere perception does not reach being, and
therefore fails of truth; and therefore has no share in knowledge. But if
so, knowledge is not perception. What then is knowledge? The mind, when
occupied by herself with being, is said to have opinion--shall we say that
'Knowledge is true opinion'? But still an old difficulty recurs; we ask
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