| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: he reflected. 'Something to his advantage is not strictly true;
but it's taking and original, and a man is not on oath in an
advertisement. All that I require now is the ready cash for my
own meals and for the advertisement, and--no, I can't lavish
money upon John, but I'll give him some more papers. How to raise
the wind?'
He approached his cabinet of signets, and the collector suddenly
revolted in his blood. 'I will not!' he cried; 'nothing shall
induce me to massacre my collection--rather theft!' And dashing
upstairs to the drawing-room, he helped himself to a few of his
uncle's curiosities: a pair of Turkish babooshes, a Smyrna fan, a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: cheapening toys for her last baby. When a man has Florine, who is in
turn duchess, bourgeoise, Negress, marquise, colonel, Swiss peasant,
virgin of the sun in Peru (only way she can play the part), I don't
see why he should go rambling after fashionable women."
Du Tillet, to use a Bourse term, EXECUTED Nathan, who, for lack of
money, gave up his place on the newspaper; and the celebrated man
received but five votes in the electoral college where the banker was
elected.
When, after a long and happy journey in Italy, the Comtesse de
Vandenesse returned to Paris late in the following winter, all her
husband's predictions about Nathan were justified. He had taken
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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 Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: instrument, she curtsied and caught at his hand.
"Will the senor have his fortune told?"
Bucky drew a handful of change from his pocket and selected a
gold eagle. "I suppose I must cross your palm with gold," he
said, even while his subconscious mind was running on the new
complication presented to him by this discovery.
He was very clear about one thing. He must not let her know that
he knew her for a girl. To him she must still be a boy, or their
relation would become impossible. She had trusted in her power to
keep her secret from him. On no other terms would she have come
with him; of so much he was sure, even while his mind groped for
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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 Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: wouldn't tell it. So I set out to find Milly. An' I tried to get
on the trail of that proselyter. I knew if I ever struck a town
he'd visited that I'd get a trail. I knew, too, that nothin'
short of hell would stop his proselytin'. An' I rode from town to
town. I had a blind faith that somethin' was guidin' me. An' as
the weeks an' months went by I growed into a strange sort of a
man, I guess. Anyway, people were afraid of me. Two years after
that, way over in a corner of Texas, I struck a town where my man
had been. He'd jest left. People said he came to that town
without a woman. I back-trailed my man through Arkansas an'
Mississippi, an' the old trail got hot again in Texas. I found
Riders of the Purple Sage |
