| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: for a moment at the sea and then brightly, for all her gravity, at him,
Lord Lambeth thought her at least as pretty as Mrs. Westgate, and reflected
that if this was the Boston style the Boston style was very charming.
He thought she looked very clever; he could imagine that she was
highly educated; but at the same time she seemed gentle and graceful.
For all her cleverness, however, he felt that she had to think a little
what to say; she didn't say the first thing that came into her head;
he had come from a different part of the world and from a different society,
and she was trying to adapt her conversation. The others were scattering
themselves near the rocks; Mrs. Westgate had charge of Percy Beaumont.
"Very jolly place, isn't it?" said Lord Lambeth.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Perry was on his knees, praying. I stooped and picked
up a small stone. At my movement the beast veered off
a bit and commenced circling us. Evidently it had been
a target for stones before. The ape-things were dancing
up and down urging the brute on with savage cries,
until at last, seeing that I did not throw, he charged us.
At Andover, and later at Yale, I had pitched on winning
ball teams. My speed and control must both have been
above the ordinary, for I made such a record during
my senior year at college that overtures were made
to me in behalf of one of the great major-league teams;
At the Earth's Core |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: Was he rich? Economical or spendthrift? Would he leave a fine fortune
or nothing? Was his property in annuities? In the end they found out
what follows, but only by taking infinite pains and employing much
subterraneous spying.
After the death of his wife, Ursula Mirouet, and between the years
1789 and 1813, the doctor (who had been appointed consulting physician
to the Emperor in 1805) must have made a good deal of money; but no
one knew how much. He lived simply, without other extravagancies than
a carriage by the year and a sumptuous apartment. He received no
guests, and dined out almost every day. His housekeeper, furious at
not being allowed to go with him to Nemours, told Zelie Levrault, the
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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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: extravagant in their way of living and expenses, that Hagnon, the
Teian, wore silver nails in his shoes, that Leonnatus employed
several camels, only to bring him powder out of Egypt to use when
he wrestled, and that Philotas had hunting nets a hundred furlongs
in length, that more used precious ointment than plain oil when
they went to bathe, and that they carried about servants
everywhere with them to rub them and wait upon them in their
chambers, he reproved them in gentle and reasonable terms, telling
them he wondered that they who had been engaged in so many signal
battles did not know by experience, that those who labor sleep
more sweetly and soundly than those who are labored for, and could
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