| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: settled there. He could hardly breathe. 'Let God arise and let
his enemies be scattered . . .'
'But I am not a devil!' It was obvious that the lips that
uttered this were smiling. 'I am not a devil, but only a sinful
woman who has lost her way, not figuratively but literally!' She
laughed. 'I am frozen and beg for shelter.'
He pressed his face to the window, but the little icon-lamp was
reflected by it and shone on the whole pane. He put his hands to
both sides of his face and peered between them. Fog, mist, a
tree, and--just opposite him--she herself. Yes, there, a few
inches from him, was the sweet, kindly frightened face of a woman
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: has stayed the progress of the iron horse.
PART I - IN THE VALLEY
CHAPTER I - CALISTOGA
IT is difficult for a European to imagine Calistoga, the
whole place is so new, and of such an accidental pattern; the
very name, I hear, was invented at a supper-party by the man
who found the springs.
The railroad and the highway come up the valley about
parallel to one another. The street of Calistoga joins the
perpendicular to both - a wide street, with bright, clean,
low houses, here and there a verandah over the sidewalk, here
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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 Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: "How now," quoth the Bishop in a loud and angry voice, when Robin
had so come to him, "is this the way that thou and thy band
treat one so high in the church as I am? I and these brethren
were passing peacefully along the highroad with our pack horses,
and a half score of men to guard them, when up comes a great strapping
fellow full seven feet high, with fourscore or more men back of him,
and calls upon me to stop--me, the Lord Bishop of Hereford, mark thou!
Whereupon my armed guards--beshrew them for cowards!--straight ran away.
But look ye; not only did this fellow stop me, but he threatened me,
saying that Robin Hood would strip me as bare as a winter hedge.
Then, besides all this, he called me such vile names as `fat priest,'
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
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 Message by Honore de Balzac: the truth! Any pain would be less keen than this suspense."
I answered by two tears wrung from me by that strange tone of
hers. She leaned against a tree with a faint, sharp cry.
"Madame, here comes your husband!"
"Have I a husband?" and with those words she fled away out of
sight.
"Well," cried the Count, "dinner is growing cold.--Come,
monsieur."
Thereupon I followed the master of the house into the dining-
room. Dinner was served with all the luxury which we have learned
to expect in Paris. There were five covers laid, three for the
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