| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: exchanged, but the low, moved voices in which they passed made them
sacred in the memory. In the falling greyness of the evening he watched
her figure winding through the morass, saw it turn a last time and wave
a hand, and then pass through the Slap; and it seemed to him as if
something went along with her out of the deepest of his heart. And
something surely had come, and come to dwell there. He had retained
from childhood a picture, now half obliterated by the passage of time
and the multitude of fresh impressions, of his mother telling him, with
the fluttered earnestness of her voice, and often with dropping tears,
the tale of the "Praying Weaver," on the very scene of his brief tragedy
and long repose. And now there was a companion piece; and he beheld,
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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 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass:
I often found myself regretting my own existence,
and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of
being free, I have no doubt but that I should have
killed myself, or done something for which I should
have been killed. While in this state of mind, I was
eager to hear any one speak of slavery. I was a ready
listener. Every little while, I could hear something
about the abolitionists. It was some time before I
found what the word meant. It was always used in
such connections as to make it an interesting word
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: that particular honesty which respects another man's cattle. It
was not known for certain. But calves had begun to disappear in
Cattle Land, and cows had been found killed. And calves with one
brand upon them had been found with mothers that bore the brand
of another owner. This industry was taking root in Cattle Land,
and of those who practised it, some were beginning to be
suspected. Steve was not quite fully suspected yet. But that the
Virginian had parted company with him was definitely known. And
neither man would talk about it.
There was the further news that the Bear Creek schoolhouse at
length stood complete, floor, walls, and roof; and that a lady
The Virginian |
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 Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: signs of a malignant spirit, a sagacity coldly cruel, that would
surely enable him to divine all because he suspected everything. His
yellow forehead was wrinkled like those of men whose habit it is to
believe nothing, to weigh all things, and who, like misers chinking
their gold, search out the meaning and the value of human actions. His
bodily frame, though deformed, was bony and solid, and seemed both
vigorous and excitable; in short, you might have thought him a stunted
ogre. Consequently, an inevitable danger awaited the young lady
whenever this terrible seigneur woke. That jealous husband would
surely not fail to see the difference between a worthy old burgher who
gave him no umbrage, and the new-comer, young, slender, and elegant.
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