| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: wooden fence. Along the street side of the fence there was a high
thick hedge. Muller walked along this hedge until he came to a
little gate. Then crossing the street, he saw that the house whose
windows glistened in the sunlight was a house which he knew well
from its other side, its front facade.
Now he went back to the elder tree and then walked slowly away from
this to the spot where he found the broken willow twig. He examined
every foot of the ground, but there was nothing to be seen that
was of any interest to him-not a footprint, or anything to prove
that some one else had passed that way a short time before. And
yet it would have been impossible to pass that way without leaving
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: points attacked, and others towards the houses in the grasp
of the flames, which it seemed too probable would ere long
envelop the whole town.
The Gate of Bolchaia was nearly free. Only a very small
guard had been left there. And by the traitor's suggestion,
and in order that the event might be explained apart from
him, as if by political hate, this small guard had been chosen
from the little band of exiles.
Ogareff re-entered his room, now brilliantly lighted by
the flames from the Angara; then he made ready to go out.
But scarcely had he opened the door, when a woman rushed
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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 Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London,
above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my friend, that
in his country, when any young person happened to be put to
death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality, as
a prime dainty; and that, in his time, the body of a plump girl
of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison the
Emperor, was sold to his imperial majesty's prime minister of
state, and other great mandarins of the court in joints from the
gibbet, at four hundred crowns. Neither indeed can I deny, that
if the same use were made of several plump young girls in this
town, who without one single groat to their fortunes, cannot stir
A Modest Proposal |
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 Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: Vauquer.
"Are you going a-courting?" inquired Mlle. Michonneau.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" cried the artist.
"My compliments to my lady your wife," from the employe at the
Museum.
"Your wife; have you a wife?" asked Poiret.
"Yes, in compartments, water-tight and floats, guaranteed fast
color, all prices from twenty-five to forty sous, neat check
patterns in the latest fashion and best taste, will wash, half-
linen, half-cotton, half-wool; a certain cure for toothache and
other complaints under the patronage of the Royal College of
Father Goriot |
