| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from McTeague by Frank Norris: Trina sent McTeague's twelve dollars, but never sent the
twelve that was to be her share. One day the dentist
happened to ask her about it.
"You sent that twenty-five to your mother, didn't you?" said
he.
"Oh, long ago," answered Trina, without thinking.
In fact, Trina never allowed herself to think very much of
this affair. And, in fact, another matter soon came to
engross her attention.
One Sunday evening Trina and her husband were in their
sitting-room together. It was dark, but the lamp had not
McTeague |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: once the most timid and servile of commentators, and the most cloudy of
declaimers. He can rave symbolism like Jacob Bohmen, but without an
atom of his originality and earnestness. He can develop an inverted
pyramid of daemonology, like Father Newman himself, but without an atom
of his art, his knowledge of human cravings. He combines all schools,
truly, Chaldee and Egyptian as well as Greek; but only scraps from their
mummies, drops from their quintessences, which satisfy the heart and
conscience as little as they do the logical faculties. His Greek gods
and heroes, even his Alcibiades and Socrates, are "ideas;" that is,
symbols of certain notions or qualities: their flesh and bones, their
heart and brain, have been distilled away, till nothing is left but a
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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 Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: they find their way when they could see no land to
steer for?
I tried to explain the compass to him; and though
he never really grasped the scientific explanation of it,
yet he did learn to steer by it quite as well as I. We
passed several islands on the journey--islands which
Juag told me were entirely unknown to his own island
folk. Indeed, our eyes may have been the first ever to
rest upon them. I should have liked to stop off and
explore them, but the business of empire would brook
no unnecessary delays.
Pellucidar |
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 Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: Listomere's thoughts went through before, during, and after this
evening.
Four days later Eugene was scolding his valet.
"Ah ca! Joseph; I shall soon have to send you away, my lad."
"What is it, monsieur?"
"You do nothing but make mistakes. Where did you carry those letters I
gave you Saturday?"
Joseph became stolid. Like a statue in some cathedral porch, he stood
motionless, entirely absorbed in the labors of imagination. Suddenly
he smiled idiotically, and said:--
"Monsieur, one was for the Marquise de Listomere, the other was for
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