| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: she saw her walking in front of me. Then when I was tired and
hungry, in that place which for me was so closely connected with
this woman, and in his own uncanny company, either by mesmerism
or through the action of the drug he threw upon the fire, he had
succeeded in calling up the illusion of her presence to my
charmed sight. All this was clear enough, what remained obscure
was his object.
Possibly he had none beyond an impish desire to frighten me,
which is common enough among practitioners of magic in all lands.
Well, for a little while he had succeeded, although to speak
truth I remained uncertain whether in a sense I was not more
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: story by now. As I read the case, I fancy there was no feeling
for her left in him but the hatred occasioned by his supposed
dishonour.
At any rate, she tried to call up her old graces; but early in
the evening he complained of pains and fever, and left the hall
to go up to his room. His servant carried him a cup of hot wine,
and brought back word that he was sleeping and not to be
disturbed; and an hour later, when Anne lifted the tapestry and
listened at his door, she heard his loud regular breathing. She
thought it might be a feint, and stayed a long time barefooted in
the cold passage, her ear to the crack; but the breathing went on
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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 A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: Though slackly braided in loose negligence.
A thousand favours from a maund she drew
Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,
Which one by one she in a river threw,
Upon whose weeping margent she was set;
Like usury applying wet to wet,
Or monarchs' hands, that lets not bounty fall
Where want cries 'some,' but where excess begs all.
Of folded schedules had she many a one,
Which she perus'd, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood;
Crack'd many a ring of posied gold and bone,
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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 La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: training. Then she told him that one of the chief causes of her
sadness and her tears was the thought that, on the morrow of her
death, he and Marie would be left almost resourceless, with but a
slender stock of money, and no friend but God.
"How quick I must be about learning!" cried Louis, giving her a
piteous, searching look.
"Oh! how happy I am!" she said, showering kisses and tears on her son.
"He understands me!--Louis," she went on, "you will be your brother's
guardian, will you not? You promise me that? You are no longer a
child!"
"Yes, I promise," he said; "but you are not going to die yet--say that
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