| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Of still regret; for the man -- But hear me,
And judge for yourself: --
For a time the seasons
Changed and passed in a sweet succession
That seemed to me like an endless music:
Life was a rolling psalm, and the choirs
Of God were glad for our love. I fancied
All this, and more than I dare to tell you
To-night, -- yes, more than I dare to remember;
And then -- well, the music stopped. There are moments
In all men's lives when it stops, I fancy, --
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: associations and warmer life. He turned away his head that he
might not see, but she passed around and fronted him.
"Look at me, Dave! Look at me! I am the same, after all. And so
are you, if you would but see. We are not changed."
Her hand rested on his shoulder, and his had half-passed, roughly,
about her, when the sharp crackle of a match startled him to
himself. Winapie, alien to the scene, was lighting the slow wick
of the slush lamp. She appeared to start out against a background
of utter black, and the flame, flaring suddenly up, lighted her
bronze beauty to royal gold.
"You see, it is impossible," he groaned, thrusting the fair-haired
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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 Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: many to come as there used to be, I'm aware, but I expected to see
more."
"I thought they turned out pretty well, when you come to think
of it; why, everybody was sayin' so an' feelin' gratified,"
answered Mrs. Todd hastily with pleasing unconsciousness; then I
saw the quick color flash into her cheek, and presently she made
some excuse to turn and steal an anxious look at her mother. Mrs.
Blackett was smiling and thinking about her happy day, though she
began to look a little tired. Neither of my companions was
troubled by her burden of years. I hoped in my heart that I might
be like them as I lived on into age, and then smiled to think that
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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 Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: life, and years and loneliness hung heavily on his old arms. He was
seventy-six, he told me; and nobody would give a day's work to a man
that age: they would think he couldn't do it. 'And, 'deed,' he went
on, with a sad little chuckle, ''deed, I doubt if I could.' He said
goodbye to me at a footpath, and crippled wearily off to his work.
It will make your heart ache if you think of his old fingers groping
in the snow.
He told me I was to turn down beside the school-house for Dunure.
And so, when I found a lone house among the snow, and heard a babble
of childish voices from within, I struck off into a steep road
leading downwards to the sea. Dunure lies close under the steep
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