| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: lurched violently.
That was too much for the rickety loft floor. It was only a bit of brush
laid on a netting of slender poles. It creaked, rasped, and went down with
a crash. I alighted upon somebody, and knocked him to the floor. Whoever it
was, seized me with iron hands. I was buried, almost smothered, in the
dusty mass. My captor began to curse cheerfully, and I knew then that
Herky-Jerky had made me a prisoner.
XV. THE FIGHT
Herky hauled me out of the brush, and held me in the light. The others
scrambled from under the remains of the loft, and all viewed me curiously.
"Kid, you ain't hurt much?" queried Buell, with concern.
The Young Forester |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: lived, for the most part, not in colleges, but in private lodgings,
and constituted a republic of their own, ruled by an abbe of the
scholars, one of themselves, chosen by universal suffrage. A terror
they were often to the respectable burghers, for they had all the
right to carry arms; and a plague likewise, for, if they ran in
debt, their creditors were forbidden to seize their books, which,
with their swords, were generally all the property they possessed.
If, moreover, anyone set up a noisy or unpleasant trade near their
lodgings, the scholars could compel the town authorities to turn him
out. They were most of them, probably, mere boys of from twelve to
twenty, living poorly, working hard, and--those at least of them who
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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 Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: means to amuse myself. My notary invests my money; he knows what I
have; as soon as I have taken him the money I never think of it
again."
"I've always been told," cried old Vervelle, "that artists were
baskets with holes in them."
"Who is your notary--if it is not indiscreet to ask?" said Madame
Vervelle.
"A good fellow, all round," replied Grassou. "His name is Cardot."
"Well, well! if that isn't a joke!" exclaimed Vervelle. "Cardot is our
notary too."
"Take care! don't move," said the painter.
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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 Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: doctor in the eye. "I should deserve all those epithets and
still more brutal ones if I should marry, knowing that my
marriage would cause such horrors. But that I do not believe.
You and your teachers--you are specialists, and consequently you
are driven to attribute everything to the disease you make the
subject of your studies. A tragic case, an exceptional case,
holds a kind of fascination for you; you think it can never be
talked about enough."
"I have heard that argument before," said the doctor, with an
effort at patience.
"Let me go on, I beg you," pleaded George. "You have told me
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