| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: I had done nothing at all. Cecily, I am very much hurt indeed to
hear you broke it off. Particularly when the weather was so
charming.
CECILY. It would hardly have been a really serious engagement if
it hadn't been broken off at least once. But I forgave you before
the week was out.
ALGERNON. [Crossing to her, and kneeling.] What a perfect angel
you are, Cecily.
CECILY. You dear romantic boy. [He kisses her, she puts her
fingers through his hair.] I hope your hair curls naturally, does
it?
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: four-in-hand with grace; was as light as a cherub and quiet as a lamb,
but knew how to beat a townsman at the terrible game of /savate/ or
cudgels; moreover, he played the piano in a fashion which would have
enabled him to become an artist should he fall on calamity, and owned
a voice which would have been worth to Barbaja fifty thousand francs a
season. Alas, that all these fine qualities, these pretty faults, were
tarnished by one abominable vice: he believed neither in man nor
woman, God nor Devil. Capricious nature had commenced by endowing him,
a priest had completed the work.
To render this adventure comprehensible, it is necessary to add here
that Lord Dudley naturally found many women disposed to reproduce
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: "You can have him for nothing," said Tattine, with a wan little smile; "after
this he can never be trusted in anything."
CHAPTER VI. "IT IS THEIR NATURE TO."
Tattine was getting on beautifully with her attempt to use Grandma Luty's name
at the proper time, and in the proper place, and she was getting on
beautifully with grandma herself as well. She loved everything about her, and
wished it need not be so very long till she could be a grandma herself, have
white hair and wear snowy caps atop of it, and kerchiefs around her neck, and
use gold eye-glasses and a knitting-basket. Grandma Luty, you see, was one of
the dear, old-fashioned grandmothers. There are not many of them nowadays.
Most of them seem to like to dress so you cannot tell a grandmother from just
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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 Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: contented and happy to have met the very Wisest Woman.
When she did listen a little she heard the lady say:
``There came news that my husband was ill in Mobile, and I feared
that it was of the Dreadful Fever, and I hurried there so that I
could get to him before the Dreadful Quarantines were put on. I
felt all safe about the baby, for I left her with my mother and the
faithful nurse who had been my nurse, too. But when the worst had
come and was over,--and it was the Dreadful Fever,--then I tried to
get back to my home; but I could not for many, many days, because
the Dreadful Quarantines were on. Then at last I did get there--I
slipped up secretly by water. All were gone. I could find no one
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