| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: Frank. But since she had been here the sounds
and smells in the corridor, the look of the men
in convicts' clothes who passed the glass door of
the warden's office, affected her unpleasantly.
The warden's clock ticked, the young con-
vict's pen scratched busily in the big book, and
his sharp shoulders were shaken every few
seconds by a loose cough which he tried to
smother. It was easy to see that he was a sick
man. Alexandra looked at him timidly, but he
O Pioneers! |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: it?"
"I am not what I seem. I never wore so splendid a dress as this
till tonight, and shall not again."
He gave the fan such a twirl that its slender sticks snapped, and
it dropped like the broken wing of a bird.
"Mr. Uxbridge, that fan belongs to Mrs. Bliss."
He threw it out of the window.
"You have courage, fidelity, and patience--this character with
a passionate soul. I am sure that you have such a soul?"
"I do not know."
"I have fallen in love with you. It happened on the very day when
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: Broadway, and then drifted down the great sluice
that washes out the dust of the gold-mines of Gotham.
He wore a morning suit of light gray, low, dull kid
shoes, a plain, finely woven straw hat, and his visible
linen was the most delicate possible shade of belio-
trope. His necktie was the blue-gray of a Novem-
ber sky, and its knot was plainly the outcome of a
lordly carelessness combined with an accurate con-
ception of the most recent dictum of fashion.
Now, to write of a man's haberdashery is a worse
thing than to write a historical novel "around"
The Voice of the City |
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 The Underground City by Jules Verne: Its brightness, therefore, cannot affect your vision.
But our own sun, which will rise to-morrow, is only distant
thirty-eight millions of leagues, and no human eye can gaze fixedly
upon that, for it is brighter than the blaze of any furnace.
But come, Nell, come!"
They pursued their way, James Starr leading the maiden, Harry walking
by her side, while Jack Ryan roamed about like a young dog,
impatient of the slow pace of his masters. The road was lonely.
Nell kept looking at the great trees, whose branches, waving in
the wind, made them seem to her like giants gesticulating wildly.
The sound of the breeze in the tree-tops, the deep silence during
|
