| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: Bessie Bell, they are not Sisters like Sister Helen Vincula and the
Sisters that you know, but they are just what they say they are--
just own dear sisters.''
Then came to Bessie Bell that knowledge that we are often times slow
in getting: she knew all of a sudden--that she did not know
everything. She did not know all, even about Sisters.
Because, in all that she knew or remembered or wondered about, there
was nothing at all about that strange thing that all the little
children, but herself, knew so well about--''Own-dear-sisters.''
Another strange thing came into her mind, brought into her mind
partly by her ears, but mostly by her eyes: There were not in this
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: Balfours of Shaws: an ancient, honest, reputable house,
peradventure in these latter days decayed. Your father, too, was
a man of learning as befitted his position; no man more plausibly
conducted school; nor had he the manner or the speech of a common
dominie; but (as ye will yourself remember) I took aye a pleasure
to have him to the manse to meet the gentry; and those of my own
house, Campbell of Kilrennet, Campbell of Dunswire, Campbell of
Minch, and others, all well-kenned gentlemen, had pleasure in his
society. Lastly, to put all the elements of this affair before
you, here is the testamentary letter itself, superscrived by the
own hand of our departed brother."
Kidnapped |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: Elise. "Why don't you pad?
The orchestra played a wailing waltz that Medora
had learned from the hand-organs. She followed
the air with nodding head in a sweet soprano hum.
Madder looked across the table at her, and wondered
in what strange waters Binkley had caught her in
his seine. She smiled at him, and they raised glasses
and drank of the wine that boiled when it was cold.
Binkley had abandoned art and was prating of the
unusual spring catch of shad. Miss Elise arranged
the palette-and-maul-stick tie pin of Mr. Vandyke.
The Voice of the City |
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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: from one end of Peloponnesus to the other, without the least
disorder, and, in a manner, without being heard. It gave the
Greeks occasion to discourse with one another, how great might
be the temperance and modesty of a Laconian army in old time,
under their famous captains Agesilaus, Lysander, or Leonidas,
since they saw such discipline and exact obedience under a
leader who perhaps was the youngest man all the army. They saw
also how he was himself content to fare hardly, ready to undergo
any labors, and not to be distinguished by pomp or richness of
habit or arms from the meanest of his soldiers; and to people in
general it was an object of regard and admiration. But rich men
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