| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: team, they refused to move.
A few feet farther on, and the mass would pass behind
them! Michael saw the tarantass struck, his companion
crushed; he saw there was no time to drag her from the
vehicle.
Then, possessed in this hour of peril with superhuman
strength, he threw himself behind it, and planting his feet
on the ground, by main force placed it out of danger.
The enormous mass as it passed grazed his chest, taking
away his breath as though it had been a cannon-ball, then
crushing to powder the flints on the road, it bounded into the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: can't be touched until we get the coroner here from Black Hawk,
and that will be a matter of several days, this weather.'
`Well, I can take them some victuals, anyway, and say a word of
comfort to them poor little girls. The oldest one was his darling,
and was like a right hand to him. He might have thought of her.
He's left her alone in a hard world.' She glanced distrustfully
at Ambrosch, who was now eating his breakfast at the kitchen table.
Fuchs, although he had been up in the cold nearly all night, was going
to make the long ride to Black Hawk to fetch the priest and the coroner.
On the grey gelding, our best horse, he would try to pick his way across
the country with no roads to guide him.
My Antonia |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Verses 1889-1896 by Rudyard Kipling: Her Majesty's Royal Engineers,
With the rank and pay of a Sapper!
THAT DAY
It got beyond all orders an' it got beyond all 'ope;
Verses 1889-1896 |
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 Summer by Edith Wharton: drop of something to pick you up?...No....Well,
just lay back a minute then....There's nothing to be
done just yet; but in about a month, if you'll step
round again...I could take you right into my own house
for two or three days, and there wouldn't be a mite of
trouble. Mercy me! The next time you'll know better'n
to fret like this...."
Charity gazed at her with widening eyes. This woman
with the false hair, the false teeth, the false
murderous smile--what was she offering her but immunity
from some unthinkable crime? Charity, till then, had
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