| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Buttered Side Down by Edna Ferber: upon him. After Ted had served his term he came back home to visit
his mother's grave, intending to take the next train out. He wore
none of the prison pallor that you read about in books, because he
had been shortstop on the penitentiary all-star baseball team, and
famed for the dexterity with which he could grab up red-hot
grounders. The storied lock step and the clipped hair effect also
were missing. The superintendent of Ted's prison had been one of
the reform kind.
You never would have picked Ted for a criminal. He had none
of those interesting phrenological bumps and depressions that
usually are shown to such frank advantage in the Bertillon
Buttered Side Down |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: sent thrice every day one servant or other to enquire after his
health; and yesterday, about four in the afternoon, word was
brought me that he was past hopes: Upon which, I prevailed with
myself to go and see him, partly out of commiseration, and I
confess, partly out of curiosity. He knew me very well, seem'd
surpriz'd at my condescension, and made me compliments upon it as
well as he could, in the condition he was. The people about him
said, he had been for some time delirious; but when I saw him, he
had his understanding as well as ever I knew, and spake strong
and hearty, without any seeming uneasiness or constraint. After I
told him how sorry I was to see him in those melancholy
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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 Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: little old Molineux. Now and again old Guillaume might be seen there,
coming from the Rue du Colombier. Politics were discussed in a quiet
way, but cautiously, for the opinions of the Cafe David were liberal.
The gossip of the neighborhood was repeated, men so urgently feel the
need of laughing at each other!
This cafe, like all cafes for that matter, had its eccentric character
in the person of the said Pere Canquoelle, who had been regular in his
attendance there since 1811, and who seemed to be so completely in
harmony with the good folks who assembled there, that they all talked
politics in his presence without reserve. Sometimes this old fellow,
whose guilelessness was the subject of much laughter to the customers,
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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 Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: and talked of a lot of things that might have kept him.
But for all that she begged me to go and meet him. But what must we do?
There's the horse to get home as well as the body, and that will be
no easy matter."
Then followed a conversation between them, till it was agreed that Robert,
as the groom, should lead me, and that Ned must take the body.
It was a hard job to get it into the dog-cart, for there was no one
to hold Ginger; but she knew as well as I did what was going on,
and stood as still as a stone. I noticed that, because, if she had a fault,
it was that she was impatient in standing.
Ned started off very slowly with his sad load, and Robert came and looked
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