| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: could soon boast of a municipal Pleasure House. The dell
was turned into a garden; and on the knoll that shelters
it from the plain and the sea winds, they built a cottage
looking to the hills. They brought crockets and
gargoyles from old St. Giles's which they were then
restoring, and disposed them on the gables and over the
door and about the garden; and the quarry which had
supplied them with building material, they draped with
clematis and carpeted with beds of roses. So much for
the pleasure of the eye; for creature comfort, they made
a capacious cellar in the hillside and fitted it with
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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 Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: humiliation and defeat. She had no inclination to run away, for
she was married now, and in her eyes that was final and all
rebellion was useless. She knew nothing about a license, but she
knew that a preacher married folks. She consoled herself by
thinking that she had always intended to marry Canute someday,
anyway.
She grew tired of crying and looking into the fire, so she got
up and began to look about her. She had heard queer tales about
the inside of Canute's shanty, and her curiosity soon got the
better of her rage. One of the first things she noticed was the
new black suit of clothes hanging on the wall. She was dull, but
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells: purpose old Grammont did not care in the least if he was
shelved. V.V. could stand alone.
Old Grammont had got a phrase in his mind that looked like
dominating the situation. He dreamt of saying to V.V.: "V.V.,
I'm going to make a man of you--if you're man enough." That
was a large proposition; it implied--oh! it implied all sorts
of things. It meant that she would care as little for
philandering as an able young business man. Perhaps some day,
a long time ahead, she might marry. There wasn't much reason
for it, but it might be she would not wish to be called a
spinster. "Take a husband," thought old Grammont, "when I am
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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 Timaeus by Plato: completed her orbit and overtaken the sun, and the year when the sun has
completed his own orbit. Mankind, with hardly an exception, have not
remarked the periods of the other stars, and they have no name for them,
and do not measure them against one another by the help of number, and
hence they can scarcely be said to know that their wanderings, being
infinite in number and admirable for their variety, make up time. And yet
there is no difficulty in seeing that the perfect number of time fulfils
the perfect year when all the eight revolutions, having their relative
degrees of swiftness, are accomplished together and attain their completion
at the same time, measured by the rotation of the same and equally moving.
After this manner, and for these reasons, came into being such of the stars
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