| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain: and DO for him, too, if it warn't too risky. If we got
the swag, we'd GOT to do for him, or he would hunt us down
and do for us, sure. But I didn't have no real hope.
I knowed we could get him drunk--he was always ready
for that--but what's the good of it? You might search him
a year and never find--"Well, right there I catched my
breath and broke off my thought! For an idea went ripping
through my head that tore my brains to rags--and land,
but I felt gay and good! You see, I had had my boots off,
to unswell my feet, and just then I took up one of them
to put it on, and I catched a glimpse of the heel-bottom,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: not natural to them. They could not bring the ideas learned in the
convent into harmony with life and its difficulties; they could not
even understand their own position. They were like children whom
mothers have always cared for, deserted by their maternal providence.
And as a child cries, they betook themselves to prayer. Now, in the
presence of imminent danger, they were mute and passive, knowing no
defence save Christian resignation.
The man at the door, taking silence for consent, presented himself,
and the women shuddered. This was the prowler that had been making
inquiries about them for some time past. But they looked at him with
frightened curiosity, much as shy children stare silently at a
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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 Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: and thoughtful.
Tristan looked silently at the prisoner's hands, then he said to
Cornelius, pointing to them:--
"Those are not the hands of a beggar, nor of an apprentice. He is a
noble."
"Say a thief!" cried the torconnier. "My good Tristan, noble or serf,
he has ruined me, the villain! I want to see his feet warmed in your
pretty boots. He is, I don't doubt it, the leader of that gang of
devils, visible and invisible, who know all my secrets, open my locks,
rob me, murder me! They have grown rich out of me, Tristan. Ha! this
time we shall get back the treasure, for the fellow has the face of
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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 McTeague by Frank Norris: congratulations and to make arrangements, was mistaken for
the expressman.
McTeague came and went furtively, dizzied and made uneasy by
all this bustle. He got in the way; he trod upon and tore
breadths of silk; he tried to help carry the packing-boxes,
and broke the hall gas fixture; he came in upon Trina and
the dress-maker at an ill-timed moment, and retiring
precipitately, overturned the piles of pictures stacked in
the hall.
There was an incessant going and coming at every moment of
the day, a great calling up and down stairs, a shouting from
McTeague |
