| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: Now, I'm a true born Yankee American son of
liberty, and I never was afraid of a gun yet in all my
life.
JENNY
Well, Mr. Jonathan, you were certainly at the play-
house.
JONATHAN
I at the play-house!--Why didn't I see the play
then?
JENNY
Why, the people you saw were players.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: measures I know not how much. Descriptions have been so severely
criticised, necessary as they are to a history of manners, that I must
here follow the example of the Roman Cicerone. As they entered the
dining-room, the Baron could not resist asking Esther to feel the
stuff of which the window curtains were made, draped with magnificent
fulness, lined with white watered silk, and bordered with a gimp fit
to trim a Portuguese princess' bodice. The material was silk brought
from Canton, on which Chinese patience had painted Oriental birds with
a perfection only to be seen in mediaeval illuminations, or in the
Missal of Charles V., the pride of the Imperial library at Vienna.
"It hafe cost two tousand franc' an ell for a milord who brought it
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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 Confidence by Henry James: living in Germany--a friend whose name was Gordon Wright.
He had been spending the winter in Dresden, but his letter
bore the date of Baden-Baden. As it was not long, I may give
it entire.
"I wish very much that you would come to this place. I think
you have been here before, so that you know how pretty it is,
and how amusing. I shall probably be here the rest of the summer.
There are some people I know and whom I want you to know.
Be so good as to arrive. Then I will thank you properly for your
various Italian rhapsodies. I can't reply on the same scale--
I have n't the time. Do you know what I am doing?
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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 Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: up her mind, and said:
"Yes, this will do; and, besides, there is a view."
So they drove into a large yard studded with trees, behind the
inn, which was only separated from the river by the towing-path,
and got out. The husband sprang out first, and held out his arms
for his wife. As the step was very high, Madame Dufour, in order
to reach him, had to show the lower part of her limbs, whose
former slenderness had disappeared in fat. Monsieur Dufour, who
was already getting excited by the country air, pinched her calf,
and then, taking her in his arms, set her on to the ground, as if
she had been some enormous bundle. She shook the dust out of the
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