| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: richest silk mercer in the Rue des Bourdonnais, with his father-in-
law, Monsieur Cardot, two or three old bankers, and some immaculate
ladies--the arrangements, made necessary by the way in which
everything was packed away--the plate, the Dresden china, the
candlesticks, and the glass--made a variety in the monotonous lives of
the three women, who came and went and exerted themselves as nuns
would to receive their bishop. Then, in the evening, when all three
were tired out with having wiped, rubbed, unpacked, and arranged all
the gauds of the festival, as the girls helped their mother to
undress, Madame Guillaume would say to them, "Children, we have done
nothing today."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: was coming the messenger of another death, equally sure
and no less terrible. He remained silent, almost
paralyzed by fear. The Arab approached. Across the
trail from Werper the lion crouched for the spring,
when suddenly his attention was attracted toward the
horseman.
The Belgian saw the massive head turn in the direction
of the raider and his heart all but ceased its beating
as he awaited the result of this interruption. At a
walk the horseman approached. Would the nervous animal
he rode take fright at the odor of the carnivore, and,
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells: for example, to begin with. And then the right to make
recommendations. . . . You see? . . . No, the international
part is not the most difficult part of it. But my beastly
owners and their beastly lawyers won't relinquish a scrap of
what they call their freedom of action. And my labour men,
because I'm a fairly big coal owner myself, sit and watch and
suspect me, too stupid to grasp what I am driving at and too
incompetent to get out a scheme of their own. They want a
world control on scientific lines even less than the owners.
They try to think that fuel production can carry an unlimited
wages bill and the owners try to think that it can pay
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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 Roads of Destiny by O. Henry: in his nest was a quart bottle of very poor whisky and a paper bag of
bread and cheese. Mr. Ruggles, in his private car, was on his trip
south for the winter season.
For a week that car was trundled southward, shifted, laid over, and
manipulated after the manner of rolling stock, but Chicken stuck to
it, leaving it only at necessary times to satisfy his hunger and
thirst. He knew it must go down to the cattle country, and San
Antonio, in the heart of it, was his goal. There the air was
salubrious and mild; the people indulgent and long-suffering. The
bartenders there would not kick him. If he should eat too long or too
often at one place they would swear at him as if by rote and without
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