| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: press the scales the other way. He often repaired his fault, the
season permitting, by inviting his friend to accompany him to the
opera; and it not infrequently thus happened that, to show he
didn't wish her to have but one sort of food for her mind, he was
the cause of her appearing there with him a dozen nights in the
month. It even happened that, seeing her home at such times, he
occasionally went in with her to finish, as he called it, the
evening, and, the better to make his point, sat down to the frugal
but always careful little supper that awaited his pleasure. His
point was made, he thought, by his not eternally insisting with her
on himself; made for instance, at such hours, when it befell that,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: help sharing a little of her husband's wonder that the boy could
prefer to work underground instead of in the sweet, fresh
sunshine. But she had thought it was because in the desperation
of his complete revolt from Martin's domination anything else
seemed to him preferable. Now, in a lightning flash, she
understood. This reaction from a life whose duties had begun
before sun-up and ended long after sundown, made danger seem as
nothing in comparison with the marvellous chance to earn a
comfortable living with only one hour's work a day.
Her conversation with Bill proved that she had been only too
right. The boy was intoxicated with his own liberty. "I know I
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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 McTeague by Frank Norris: thought she was rather pretty, that he even liked her
because she was so small, so prettily made, so good natured
and straightforward.
"Let's have a look at your teeth," he said, picking up his
mirror. "You better take your hat off." She leaned back in
her chair and opened her mouth, showing the rows of
little round teeth, as white and even as the kernels on an
ear of green corn, except where an ugly gap came at the
side.
McTeague put the mirror into her mouth, touching one and
another of her teeth with the handle of an excavator. By
McTeague |
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 Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: the North Pole itself, the still axle of the spinning world; and
sink in death around it, and become white snow-clad ghosts.
But will they live again, those chilled air-mothers? Yes, they
must live again. For all things move for ever; and not even
ghosts can rest. So the corpses of their sisters, piling on them
from above, press them outward, press them southward toward the
sun once more; across the floes and round the icebergs, weeping
tears of snow and sleet, while men hate their wild harsh voices,
and shrink before their bitter breath. They know not that the
cold bleak snow-storms, as they hurtle from the black north-east,
bear back the ghosts of the soft air-mothers, as penitents, to
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