| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: your position to one in mine ?"
"But I said nothing unbecoming," said Agatha. Then, breaking off
restlessly, and smiling again, she said: "Oh, don't let us argue.
I am very sorry, and very troublesome, and very fond of you and
of the college; and I won't come back next term unless you like."
"Agatha," said Miss Wilson, shaken, "these expressions of regard
cost you so little, and when they have effected their purpose,
are so soon forgotten by you, that they have ceased to satisfy
me. I am very reluctant to insist on your leaving us at once. But
as your uncle has told you, you are old and sensible enough to
know the difference between order and disorder. Hitherto you have
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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 Reef by Edith Wharton: indecision. It was the hour of all others when she would
have liked to affirm herself by brushing aside every
obstacle to his wishes; yet it was only by opposing them
that she could show the strength of character she wanted him
to feel in her.
But as she talked she began to see that Darrow's face gave
back no reflection of her words, that he continued to wear
the abstracted look of a man who is not listening to what is
said to him. It caused her a slight pang to discover that
his thoughts could wander at such a moment; then, with a
flush of joy she perceived the reason.
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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 The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: found I must sleep alone in the house I bought a revolver
wonderfully cheap, and made the man show me how to use it.'
'And how do you use it?' demanded Gideon, much amused at her
courage.
'Why,' said she, with a smile, 'you pull the little trigger thing
on top, and then pointing it very low, for it springs up as you
fire, you pull the underneath little trigger thing, and it goes
off as well as if a man had done it.'
'And how often have you used it?' asked Gideon.
'O, I have not used it yet,' said the determined young lady; 'but
I know how, and that makes me wonderfully courageous, especially
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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 Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: manner; a note that no one understood until Dr. Van Dyke told us, in his
beautiful little poem, that it is "witchery, witchery, witchery," and now we
wonder that we could have been so stupid as not to have discovered it was
exactly that, long ago. But the glory of the summer were the orioles and the
scarlet tanagers; the orioles with their marvellous notes, and the tanagers in
their scarlet golfing coats glinting here and there in the sunshine. Nests
everywhere, and Tattine on one long voyage of discovery, until she knew where
at least twenty little bird families were going to crack-shell their way into
life. But there was one little family of whose whereabouts she knew nothing,
nor anyone else for that matter, until "Hark, what was that?"--Mabel and
Rudolph and Tattine were running across the end of the porch, and it was
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