| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: how it had impressed her.
Hurrying out, he asked himself how he could begin advances.
Either he must do something quickly in time to get home for the
evening chores or he must wait until another day. He must think
out a plan, at once. Passing the bakery, half way down the block,
he dropped in, ordered a chocolate ice-cream soda, and chose a
seat near the window. As he had expected, it was not long before
he saw Rose go across the courthouse yard toward her office on
the north side of the square. He liked the swift, easy way in
which she walked. She had been walking the first time he had ever
seen her, thirteen years before, when her father had led his
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: dearest friends, and how unable they are to preserve the most
solemn resolutions of virtue without divine assistance; these
are parts which, to a just discernment, will appear to have
more real beauty in them all the amorous chain of story which
introduces it.
In a word, as the whole relation is carefully garbled of all the
levity and looseness that was in it, so it all applied, and with
the utmost care, to virtuous and religious uses. None can,
without being guilty of manifest injustice, cast any reproach
upon it, or upon our design in publishing it.
The advocates for the stage have, in all ages, made this the
Moll Flanders |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: shelter: a good old gentleman named Edwards, rather broken down
in health--who came as much for quiet as for sea-air, and who had
been warmly recommended to Feliu by Captain Harris. For some
years he had been troubled by a disease of the heart.
Certainly the old invalid could not have found a more suitable
place so far as rest and quiet were concerned. The season had
early given such little promise that several men of the Point
betook themselves elsewhere; and the aged visitor had two or
three vacant cabins from among which to select a dwelling-place.
He chose to occupy the most remote of all, which Carmen furnished
for him with a cool moss bed and some necessary
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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 Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: I suppose he thought the rest of them riders would
come back, when they heard that shot, and hunt
him down.
I thought they might myself. But I laid there,
and jest waited. If they come, I didn't want to
be found running. But they didn't come. The
two last ones had caught up with the main gang,
I guess, fur purty soon I hearn them all crossing
that plank bridge agin, and knowed they was gone.
At first I guessed the feller on the ground must
be dead. But he wasn't, fur purty soon I hearn him
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