| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from When a Man Marries by Mary Roberts Rinehart: kinds of things tied together, trunk straps, clothesline, bed
sheets, and something that Flannigan pointed to with rage and
said he hadn't been able to keep his clothes on all day. He
refused to explain further, however, and trailed the nondescript
article up the stairs. We could only gaze after him and wonder
what it all meant.
The conclave lasted far into the night. The feminine contingent
went to bed, but not to sleep. Some time after midnight, Mr.
Harbison and Max went downstairs and I could hear them rattling
around testing windows and burglar alarms. But finally every one
settled down and the rest of the night was quiet.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: show, to prove, that he wouldn't. He had thus another station,
close to the thin partition by which revelation was denied him; but
with his eyes bent and his hands held off in a mere intensity of
stillness. He listened as if there had been something to hear, but
this attitude, while it lasted, was his own communication. "If you
won't then - good: I spare you and I give up. You affect me as by
the appeal positively for pity: you convince me that for reasons
rigid and sublime - what do I know? - we both of us should have
suffered. I respect them then, and, though moved and privileged
as, I believe, it has never been given to man, I retire, I renounce
- never, on my honour, to try again. So rest for ever - and let
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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 Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: "Did he look mean and cunning?"
"He did not wear his legal beaver up, I think; but he rode a fine
horse and sat it well."
"A lawyer on horseback should, like the beggar of the adage, ride
to the devil."
"Your business now is the 'Lemorne?'"
"You know it is."
"I did not know but that you had found something besides to
litigate."
"It must have been Edward Uxbridge that you saw. He is the brain
of the firm."
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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 Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: her locks were snow-white. When I entered the dimly lighted room
she was sitting in the midst of a group of women and
girls--patients in the hospital--who listened with bated breath
as she told them of the horrors of the Tai-ping rebellion.
" 'Why!' said the old nurse, 'all that the rebels had to do on
their way to Peking, was to cut out as many paper soldiers as
they wanted, put them in boxes, and breathe upon them when they
met the imperial troops, and they were transformed into such
fierce warriors that no one was able to withstand them. Then when
the battle was over and they had come off victors they only
needed to breathe upon them again, when they were changed into
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