| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: His silverware I've handled.
I've placed these battered legs of mine
'Neath tables gayly candled.
I dine on rare and costly fare
Whene'er good fortune lets me,
But there's no meal that can compare
With those the missus gets me.
I've had your steaks three inches thick
With all your Sam Ward trimming,
I've had the breast of milk-fed chick
In luscious gravy swimming.
A Heap O' Livin' |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: forever. The unexpected had happened, and she had achieved a
rescue in the face of the impossible.
"Hurt badly?" the girl inquired briefly, her dark-blue eyes
meeting his as frankly as those of a boy.
"No need for an undertaker. I reckon I'll survive, ma'am,"
"Where are you hit?"
"I just got a telegram from my ankle saying there was a cargo of
lead arrived there unexpected," he drawled easily.
"Hurts a good deal, doesn't it?"
"No more than is needful to keep my memory jogged up. It's a sort
of a forget-me-not souvenir. For a good boy; compliments of Mr.
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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 Professor by Charlotte Bronte: improves; besides, I work under difficulties; here I only teach
sewing, I can show no power in sewing, no superiority--it is a
subordinate art; then I have no associates in this house, I am
isolated; I am too a heretic, which deprives me of influence."
"And in England you would be a foreigner; that too would deprive
you of influence, and would effectually separate you from all
round you; in England you would have as few connections, as
little importance as you have here."
"But I should be learning something; for the rest, there are
probably difficulties for such as I everywhere, and if I must
contend, and perhaps: be conquered, I would rather submit to
The Professor |
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 A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: of Education. A friend to whom I mentioned my intention said, "You
know nothing of modern education: schools are not now what they were
when you were a boy." I immediately procured the time sheets of half
a dozen modern schools, and found, as I expected, that they might all
have been my old school: there was no real difference. I may
mention, too, that I have visited modern schools, and observed that
there is a tendency to hang printed pictures in an untidy and soulless
manner on the walls, and occasionally to display on the mantel-shelf a
deplorable glass case containing certain objects which might possibly,
if placed in the hands of the pupils, give them some practical
experience of the weight of a pound and the length of an inch. And
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