| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: them fixed on me. No one had ever known what he had
meant to the girl of twenty, with her brain full of
unspoken dreams--dreams which were all to become glorious
realities in that wonder-place, New York.
How he had fired my country-girl imagination! He had
been the most brilliant writer on the big, brilliant
sheet--and the most dissolute. How my heart had pounded
on that first lonely day when this Wonder-Being looked up
from his desk, saw me, and strolled over to where I sat
before my typewriter! He smiled down at me, companionably.
I'm quite sure that my mouth must have been wide open 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 Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: is in heaven and upon the earth, is daily given, preserved, and kept
for us by God, it is readily inferred and concluded that it is our duty
to love, praise, and thank Him for it without ceasing, and, in short,
to serve Him with all these things as He demands and has enjoined in
the Ten Commandments.
Here we could say much if we were to expatiate, how few there are that
believe this article. For we all pass over it, hear it and say it, but
neither see nor consider what the words teach us. For if we believed it
with the heart, we would also act accordingly, and not stalk about
proudly, act defiantly, and boast as though we had life, riches, power,
and honor, etc., of ourselves, so that others must fear and serve us,
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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 Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: to the desolate valley of Opar.
Tarzan had no idea, in so far as Werper could discover,
as to where he was or whence he came. He wandered
aimlessly about, searching for food, which he
discovered beneath small rocks, or hiding in the shade
of the scant brush which dotted the ground.
The Belgian was horrified by the hideous menu of his
companion. Beetles, rodents and caterpillars were
devoured with seeming relish. Tarzan was indeed an ape
again.
At last Werper succeeded in leading his companion
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
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 Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: way, began lazily to inquire into the elements of this illusion,
occasionally, even as I did so, dropping back into a comfortable
morning doze. I was still so engaged when, in one of my more
wakeful moments, my eyes fell upon my hand. Now the hand of Henry
Jekyll (as you have often remarked) was professional in shape and
size: it was large, firm, white and comely. But the hand which I
now saw, clearly enough, in the yellow light of a mid-London
morning, lying half shut on the bedclothes, was lean, corder,
knuckly, of a dusky pallor and thickly shaded with a swart growth
of hair. It was the hand of Edward Hyde.
I must have stared upon it for near half a minute, sunk as I
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
