| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde: sake to marry her, that the child might have a name, that her sin
might not be visited on the child, who was innocent. He refused.
After the child was born she left him, taking the child away, and
her life was ruined, and her soul ruined, and all that was sweet,
and good, and pure in her ruined also. She suffered terribly - she
suffers now. She will always suffer. For her there is no joy, no
peace, no atonement. She is a woman who drags a chain like a
guilty thing. She is a woman who wears a mask, like a thing that
is a leper. The fire cannot purify her. The waters cannot quench
her anguish. Nothing can heal her! no anodyne can give her sleep!
no poppies forgetfulness! She is lost! She is a lost soul! - That
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: and barks, to our navigation, our merchant fleets, our large and
powerful navies? Our city of London has more trade than half their
mighty empire: one English, Dutch, or French man-of-war of eighty
guns would be able to fight almost all the shipping belonging to
China: but the greatness of their wealth, their trade, the power
of their government, and the strength of their armies, may be a
little surprising to us, because, as I have said, considering them
as a barbarous nation of pagans, little better than savages, we did
not expect such things among them. But all the forces of their
empire, though they were to bring two millions of men into the
field together, would be able to do nothing but ruin the country
Robinson Crusoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: of a chivalry finding expression in "first-night" boxes and
thousand dollar bonbonnieres, who had transplanted Mrs. Hatch
from the scene of her first development to the higher stage of
hotel life in the metropolis. It was he who had selected the
horses with which she had taken the blue ribbon at the Show, had
introduced her to the photographer whose portraits of her formed
the recurring ornament of "Sunday Supplements," and had got
together the group which constituted her social world. It was a
small group still, with heterogeneous figures suspended
in large unpeopled spaces; but Lily did not take long to learn
that its regulation was no longer in Mr. Stancy's hands. As often
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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 Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: he was, born cavalier of beauty in distress, removed his hat and
advanced to meet her.
CHAPTER V
BEAUTY IN DISTRESS
"Can you tell me where I can get some ice? Can you sell me some
ice?" cried the lady excitedly, when she was still some yards
distant from Cleggett.
"Ice?" The request was so unusual that Cleggett was not certain
that he had understood.
"Yes, ice! Ice!" There was no mistaking the genuine character
of her eagerness; if she had been begging for her life she could
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