| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: she hired carriages, and chose a coupe that was neither old, nor
bourgeois, nor showy. Her footman, like the footmen of great houses,
had the dress and appearance of a master. About ten on the evening of
the eventful Tuesday, she left home in a charming full mourning
attire. Her hair was dressed with jet grapes of exquisite workmanship,
--an ornament costing three thousand francs, made by Fossin for an
Englishwoman who had left Paris before it was finished. The leaves
were of stamped iron-work, as light as the vine-leaves themselves, and
the artist had not forgotten the graceful tendrils, which twined in
the wearer's curls just as, in nature, they catch upon the branches.
The bracelets, necklace, and earrings were all what is called Berlin
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: took care of her. She pressed the palm of her hand against it. When you
have no one to love you, you love the dumb things very much. When the sun
set, it cleared up. Then the little girl ate some kippersol, and lay down
again to sleep. She thought there was nothing so nice as to sleep. When
one has had no food but kippersol juice for two days, one doesn't feel
strong.
"It is so nice here," she thought as she went to sleep, "I will stay here
always."
Afterwards the moon rose. The sky was very clear now, there was not a
cloud anywhere; and the moon shone in through the bushes in the door, and
made a lattice-work of light on her face. She was dreaming a beautiful
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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 Jungle Tales of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: of granite and the heavy sticks at him. Time and again
did Numa charge--sudden, vicious charges--but the lithe,
active tormentor always managed to elude him and with such
insolent ease that the lion forgot even his great hunger
in the consuming passion of his rage, leaving his meat
for considerable spaces of time in vain efforts to catch
his enemy.
The apes and Tarzan pursued the great beast to a natural
clearing,
where Numa evidently determined to make a last stand,
taking up his position in the center of the open space,
The Jungle Tales of Tarzan |
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 Gorgias by Plato: often save whole cities, and yet you despise him, and would not allow your
son to marry his daughter, or his son to marry yours. But what reason is
there in this? For if virtue only means the saving of life, whether your
own or another's, you have no right to despise him or any practiser of
saving arts. But is not virtue something different from saving and being
saved? I would have you rather consider whether you ought not to disregard
length of life, and think only how you can live best, leaving all besides
to the will of Heaven. For you must not expect to have influence either
with the Athenian Demos or with Demos the son of Pyrilampes, unless you
become like them. What do you say to this?
'There is some truth in what you are saying, but I do not entirely believe
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