| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: be a picture." Unfortunately, the young lady was not quiet;
she had apparently had enough of her attitude and her view.
She turned away, facing Longueville again, and slowly came back,
as if to re-enter the church. To do so she had to pass
near him, and as she approached he instinctively got up,
holding his drawing in one hand. She looked at him again,
with that expression that he had mentally characterized
as "bold," a few minutes before--with dark, intelligent eyes.
Her hair was dark and dense; she was a strikingly handsome
girl.
"I am so sorry you moved," he said, confidently, in English.
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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 Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: religious sentiment. Devotion had cast a monastic tone upon the face,
formerly so hard, but now marked with tints which softened its
expression. The reflections of the setting sun colored with a faintly
ruddy tinge the head, which, in spite of all infirmities, was still
vigorous. The feeble body, wrapped in brown garments, gave, by its
heavy attitude and the absence of all movement, a vivid impression of
the monotonous existence, the terrible repose of this man once so
active, so enterprising, so vindictive.
"Enough!" he said to his chaplain.
That venerable old man was reading aloud the Gospel, standing before
the master in a respectful attitude. The duke, like an old menagerie
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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 Riverman by Stewart Edward White: fourteen and sixteen hours at times. Several bad jams relieved the
monotony. Three dams had to be sluiced through. Problems of
mechanics arose to be solved on the spot; problems that an older
civilisation would have attacked deliberately and with due respect
for the seriousness of the situation and the dignity of engineering.
Orde solved them by a rough-and-ready but very effective rule of
thumb. He built and abandoned structures which would have furnished
opportunity for a winter's discussion to some committees; just as,
earlier in the work, the loggers had built through a rough country
some hundreds of miles of road better than railroad grade, solid in
foundation, and smooth as a turnpike, the quarter of which would
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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 Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: in presence of an evil spirit, each is ill at ease and distrustful;
one is polite, the other surly, but I know not which; one colors or
turns pale, the other trembles. Often the avenger is as cowardly as
the victim. Few men have the courage to invoke an evil, even when just
or necessary, and men are silent or forgive a wrong from hatred of
uproar or fear of some tragic ending.
This introsusception of our souls and our sentiments created a
mysterious struggle between Taillefer and myself. Since the first
inquiry I had put to him during Monsieur Hermann's narrative, he had
steadily avoided my eye. Possibly he avoided those of all the other
guests. He talked with the youthful, inexperienced daughter of the
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