| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from One Basket by Edna Ferber: their titles and gave a little gasp. One of them was on
gardening.
"Well, of all things!" exclaimed Stell. A book on the war, by
an Englishman. A detective story of the lurid type that lulls us
to sleep. His shoes ranged in a careful row in the closet, with
a shoe tree in every one of them. There was something speaking
about them. They looked so human. Eva shut the door on them
quickly. Some bottles on the dresser. A jar of pomade. An
ointment such as a man uses who is growing bald and is panic-
stricken too late. An insurance calendar on the wall. Some
rhubarb-and- soda mixture on the shelf in the bathroom, and a
One Basket |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: sunlight was filled with the musical hum of insects and the murmur
of falling waters. I thought how much pleasanter it would have
been to learn salmon-fishing, as Black's hero did, from the Maid of
Borva, than from a red-headed gillie. But, then, his salmon, after
leaping across the stream, got away; whereas mine was safe. A man
cannot have everything in this world. I picked a spray of rosy
bell-heather from the bank of the river, and pressed it between the
leaves of the book in memory of Sheila.
II.
COMMON HEATHER.
It is not half as far from Albany to Aberdeen as it is from New
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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 Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: marriage may be offered to you--"
"Do you love me?" she said.
"Oh, yes! indeed, yes!" he answered, with a depth of tone that
revealed an equal depth of feeling.
"I shall wait, Charles--Good heavens! there is my father at his
window," she said, repulsing her cousin, who leaned forward to kiss
her.
She ran quickly under the archway. Charles followed her. When she saw
him, she retreated to the foot of the staircase and opened the swing-
door; then, scarcely knowing where she was going, Eugenie reached the
corner near Nanon's den, in the darkest end of the passage. There
Eugenie Grandet |
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 In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: "No, indeed," I replied, still hypnotised by the Baron, who looked like a
little yellow silkworm.
"The Baron comes every year," went on the Herr Oberlehrer, "for his nerves.
He has never spoken to any of the guests--YET! A smile crossed his face.
I seemed to see his visions of some splendid upheaval of that silence--a
dazzling exchange of courtesies in a dim future, a splendid sacrifice of a
newspaper to this Exalted One, a "danke schon" to be handed down to future
generations.
At that moment the postman, looking like a German army officer, came in
with the mail. He threw my letters into my milk pudding, and then turned
to a waitress and whispered. She retired hastily. The manager of the
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