| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: Now look at that rubbed part, and tell me how it was done.
You have seen men often polish one stone on another, or scour
floors with a Bath brick, and you will guess at first that this
was polished so: but if it had been, then the rubbed place would
have been flat: but if you put your fingers over it, you will
find that it is not flat. It is rolled, fluted, channelled, so
that the thing or things which rubbed it must have been somewhat
round. And it is covered, too, with very fine and smooth
scratches or grooves, all running over the whole in the same line.
Now what could have done that?
Of course a man could have done it, if he had taken a large round
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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 Call of the Wild by Jack London: For Thornton, however, his love seemed to grow and grow. He,
alone among men, could put a pack upon Buck's back in the summer
travelling. Nothing was too great for Buck to do, when Thornton
commanded. One day (they had grub-staked themselves from the
proceeds of the raft and left Dawson for the head-waters of the
Tanana) the men and dogs were sitting on the crest of a cliff
which fell away, straight down, to naked bed-rock three hundred
feet below. John Thornton was sitting near the edge, Buck at his
shoulder. A thoughtless whim seized Thornton, and he drew the
attention of Hans and Pete to the experiment he had in mind.
"Jump, Buck!" he commanded, sweeping his arm out and over the
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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 Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: He had lost his balance and pitched headforemost into
the river. They saw a flash of straw and blue clothes,
and the painted face looking upward in surprise. The
next moment the Scarecrow was swept over the waterfall
and plunged into the basin below.
The accident had happened so suddenly that for a moment
they were all too horrified to speak or move.
"Quick! We must go to help him or he will be drowned,"
Trot exclaimed.
Even while speaking she began to descend the bank to
the pool below, and Cap'n Bill followed as swiftly as his
The Scarecrow of Oz |
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 Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: on a pretty fairly extensive mercantile experience--the best is the cheapest
in the long run. Of course if a fellow wants to be a Jew about it, he can get
cheap junk, but in the long RUN, the cheapest thing is--the best you can get!
Now you take here just th' other day: I got a new top for my old boat and some
upholstery, and I paid out a hundred and twenty-six fifty, and of course a lot
of fellows would say that was too much--Lord, if the Old Folks--they live in
one of these hick towns up-state and they simply can't get onto the way a city
fellow's mind works, and then, of course, they're Jews, and they'd lie right
down and die if they knew Sid had anted up a hundred and twenty-six bones. But
I don't figure I was stuck, George, not a bit. Machine looks brand new
now--not that it's so darned old, of course; had it less 'n three years, but I
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