| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: earth with a start.
"Oh, is that you, Ferenz? What do you want of me?"
The boy gave his message again, and Janci nodded good-humouredly
and followed him out of the house. But both he and his young
companion were very thoughtful as they plodded along the way. The
boy did not dare to ask any questions, for he knew that the shepherd
was not likely to answer. There was a silent understanding among
the villagers that no one should annoy Janci in any way, for they
stood in a strange awe of him, although he was the most
good-natured mortal under the sun.
While the shepherd and the boy walked toward the inn, the old
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from One Basket by Edna Ferber: of burlesque. The autumn that Angie Hatton came home from Europe
wearing the first tight skirt that Chippewa had ever seen, Tessie
gave an imitation of that advanced young woman's progress down
Grand Avenue in this restricting garment. The thing was cruel in
its fidelity, though containing just enough exaggeration to make
it artistic. She followed it up by imitating the stricken look
on the face of Mattie Haynes, cloak-and-suit buyer at Megan's,
who, having just returned from the East with what she considered
the most fashionable of the new fall styles, now beheld Angie
Hatton in the garb that was the last echo of the last cry in
Paris modes--and no model in Mattie's newly selected stock bore
One Basket |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: had heard that he was a corrupter of youth, and had seen him caricatured in
the Clouds of Aristophanes. Secondly, there are the professed accusers,
who are but the mouth-piece of the others. The accusations of both might
be summed up in a formula. The first say, 'Socrates is an evil-doer and a
curious person, searching into things under the earth and above the heaven;
and making the worse appear the better cause, and teaching all this to
others.' The second, 'Socrates is an evil-doer and corrupter of the youth,
who does not receive the gods whom the state receives, but introduces other
new divinities.' These last words appear to have been the actual
indictment (compare Xen. Mem.); and the previous formula, which is a
summary of public opinion, assumes the same legal style.
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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 The Pupil by Henry James: sacrificed the advantage of a room outside. He clung to the
romantic utility of this when the day, or rather the night, should
arrive for their escape.
For the first time, in this complicated connexion, our friend felt
his collar gall him. It was, as he had said to Mrs. Moreen in
Venice, trop fort - everything was trop fort. He could neither
really throw off his blighting burden nor find in it the benefit of
a pacified conscience or of a rewarded affection. He had spent all
the money accruing to him in England, and he saw his youth going
and that he was getting nothing back for it. It was all very well
of Morgan to count it for reparation that he should now settle on
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