| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: tea-party for Eudora, with her mother on hand, but I feel sure
that I saw that carriage there one of those times.
"I suppose it cost a lot of money, in the time of it. The
Yateses always got the very best for Eudora," said Julia. "And
maybe Eudora goes about so little she doesn't realize how out of
date the carriage is, but I should think it would be very heavy
to wheel, especially if the baby is a good-sized one."
"It looks like a very large baby," said Ethel. "Of course, it is
so rolled up we can't tell."
"Haven't you gone out and asked to see the baby?" said Abby.
"Would we dare unless Eudora Yates offered to show it?" said
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: shouted furiously. "You just take to your heels and never show
yourself here again. Don't come to me for materials for your plots."
He tried, as he spoke, to take away the little box which she had
slipped into one of her pockets. But at the touch of a profane hand on
her clothes, the stranger recovered youth and activity for a moment,
preferring to face the dangers of the street with no protector save
God, to the loss of the thing she had just paid for. She sprang to the
door, flung it open, and disappeared, leaving the husband and wife
dumfounded and quaking with fright.
Once outside in the street, she started away at a quick walk; but her
strength soon failed her. She heard the sound of the snow crunching
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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 Night and Day by Virginia Woolf: the future was enough to fill them with silent adoration. At any rate,
their further attempts to communicate articulately were interrupted by
a knock on the door, and the entrance of a maid who, with a due sense
of mystery, announced that a lady wished to see Miss Hilbery, but
refused to allow her name to be given.
When Katharine rose, with a profound sigh, to resume her duties, Ralph
went with her, and neither of them formulated any guess, on their way
downstairs, as to who this anonymous lady might prove to be. Perhaps
the fantastic notion that she was a little black hunchback provided
with a steel knife, which she would plunge into Katharine's heart,
appeared to Ralph more probable than another, and he pushed first into
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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 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: in the brightest frame of mind, continually urging on the driver so as
to be in time for the governor's party.
When he had changed, poured water over his head, and scented
himself, Nicholas arrived at the governor's rather late, but with
the phrase "better late than never" on his lips.
It was not a ball, nor had dancing been announced, but everyone knew
that Catherine Petrovna would play valses and the ecossaise on the
clavichord and that there would be dancing, and so everyone had come
as to a ball.
Provincial life in 1812 went on very much as usual, but with this
difference, that it was livelier in the towns in consequence of the
War and Peace |
