| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: employment for a confessor?" "Oh," said she, "it is impossible
to avoid vain thoughts." I was permitted once to visit her, She was
chearful and polite, and convers'd pleasantly. The room was clean,
but had no other furniture than a matras, a table with a crucifix
and book, a stool which she gave me to sit on, and a picture
over the chimney of Saint Veronica displaying her handkerchief,
with the miraculous figure of Christ's bleeding face on it,
which she explained to me with great seriousness. She look'd pale,
but was never sick; and I give it as another instance on how small
an income life and health may be supported.
At Watts's printing-house I contracted an acquaintance with an ingenious
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: out with a rush, a mute effusion that floated back to her, like a
returning tide, the living colour and splendour of the beautiful
head, the light of eyes that seemed to reflect such utterly other
things than the mean things actually before them; and, above all,
the high curt consideration of a manner that even at bad moments
was a magnificent habit and of the very essence of the innumerable
things--her beauty, her birth, her father and mother, her cousins
and all her ancestors--that its possessor couldn't have got rid of
even had she wished. How did our obscure little public servant
know that for the lady of the telegrams this was a bad moment? How
did she guess all sorts of impossible things, such as, almost on
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: hand on their saddle-horns, swung up, and soon all sound of the galloping
horses had ceased. Molly Wood declined to be nervous and crossed to her
little neighbor cabin; we all parted, and (as always in that blessed
country) deep sleep quickly came to me.
I don't know how long after it was that I sprang from my blankets in
half-doubting fright. But I had dreamed nothing. A second long, wild yell
now gave me (I must own to it) a horrible chill. I had no pistol--
nothing. In the hateful brightness of the moon my single thought was
"House! House!" and I fled across the lane in my underclothes to the
cabin, when round the corner whirled the two cow-punchers, and I
understood. I saw the Virginian catch sight of me in my shirt, and saw
|
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 Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: afraid of us detectives--that I'll SWEAR." (If Mrs. Wardor should
chance to be on the other side of the door within earshot, well
and good.)
For a space he meditated chastisements and revenges, physical
impossibilities for the most part,--Bechamel staggering headlong
from the impact of Mr. Hoopdriver's large, but, to tell the
truth, ill supported fist, Bechamel's five feet nine of height
lifted from the ground and quivering under a vigorously applied
horsewhip. So pleasant was such dreaming, that Mr. Hoopdriver's
peaked face under the moonlight was transfigured. One might have
paired him with that well-known and universally admired triumph,
|
