| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: been equally wise. Quarter-day came, and brought no
allowance. A letter of remonstrance was despatched, and for
the first time in my experience, remained unanswered. A
cablegram was more effectual; for it brought me at least a
promise of attention. "Will write at once," my father
telegraphed; but I waited long for his letter. I was puzzled,
angry, and alarmed; but thanks to my previous thrift, I cannot
say that I was ever practically embarrassed. The
embarrassment, the distress, the agony, were all for my
unhappy father at home in Muskegon, struggling for life and
fortune against untoward chances, returning at night from a day
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: moments; and the thought of the faithful care you took of him has
comforted me many a time since. Oh, death would have been awful
to a solitary man in a wild place like this!"
"Pray Heaven, Dorcas," said Reuben, in a broken voice,--"pray
Heaven that neither of us three dies solitary and lies unburied
in this howling wilderness!" And he hastened away, leaving her to
watch the fire beneath the gloomy pines.
Reuben Bourne's rapid pace gradually slackened as the pang,
unintentionally inflicted by the words of Dorcas, became less
acute. Many strange reflections, however, thronged upon him; and,
straying onward rather like a sleep walker than a hunter, it was
Mosses From An Old Manse |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: girl loves, and she's gentle and sweet, and ain't cruel to dumb
brutes - now that's the girl-twin, but she loves boy-plays, and
drums and fifes and soldiering, and rough-riding, and ain't afraid
of anybody or anything - and that's the boy-twin; 'deed you needn't
tell ME she's only ONE child; no, sir, she's twins, and one of them
got shet up out of sight. Out of sight, but that don't make any
difference, that boy is in there, and you can see him look out of
her eyes when her temper is up."
Then Dorcas went on, in her simple and earnest way, to furnish
illustrations.
"Look at that raven, Marse Tom. Would anybody befriend a raven but
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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 The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: rivaled the famous banquets by which the ministers of that time
secured the vote of their parliamentary recruits.
The Honorable Deputy was consequently pointed at as a most influential
corrupter of the legislative honesty of the illustrious Chamber that
was dying as it would seem of indigestion. A whimsical result! his
efforts to get his daughter married secured him a splendid popularity.
He perhaps found some covert advantage in selling his truffles twice
over. This accusation, started by certain mocking Liberals, who made
up by their flow of words for their small following in the Chamber,
was not a success. The Poitevin gentleman had always been so noble and
so honorable, that he was not once the object of those epigrams which
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