| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: When Newman's hostess had gone in to receive her friends, Tom Tristram
approached his guest.
"Don't put your foot into THIS, my boy," he said, puffing the last whiffs
of his cigar. "There's nothing in it!"
Newman looked askance at him, inquisitive. "You tell another story, eh?"
"I say simply that Madame de Cintre is a great white doll of a woman,
who cultivates quiet haughtiness."
"Ah, she's haughty, eh?"
"She looks at you as if you were so much thin air, and cares
for you about as much."
"She is very proud, eh?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: I had a chance to belong to a Little Theater, and give some
European plays, or whimsical like Barrie, or a pageant."
He pronounced it "pagent"; he rhymed "pag" with "rag."
Carol nodded in the manner of a lady being kind to a tradesman,
and one of her selves sneered, "Our Erik is indeed a lost
John Keats."
He was appealing, "Do you suppose it would be possible
to get up another dramatic club this coming fall?"
"Well, it might be worth thinking of." She came out of
her several conflicting poses, and said sincerely, "There's a new
teacher, Miss Mullins, who might have some talent. That
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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 The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: people in the rural districts reached its full intensity in
Melbury. His daughter's suitor was descended from a family he had
heard of in his grandfather's time as being once great, a family
which had conferred its name upon a neighboring village; how,
then, could anything be amiss in this betrothal?
"I must keep her up to this," he said to his wife. "She sees it
is for her happiness; but still she's young, and may want a little
prompting from an older tongue."
CHAPTER XXIII.
With this in view he took her out for a walk, a custom of his when
he wished to say anything specially impressive. Their way was
The Woodlanders |
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 Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: out of the depths. The commissioner listened with eager interest.
"Then you believed this elaborate yarn told by the tramp?" he
interrupted once, at the beginning of the narrative.
"Why, yes, sir, just because it was so elaborate. A man like Knoll
would not have had the mind to invent such a story. It must have
been true, on the face of it."
The commissioner's eyes sank again, and he did not speak until the
detective had reached the end of his story. Then he opened a drawer
in his desk and took out a bundle of official blank-forms.
"It is wonderful! Wonderful! Muller, this case will go on record
as one of your finest achievements - and we thought it was so simple
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