| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: not be long before this hope is realized. My health naturally got
worse and worse, and when I sent Mme. Duvernoy to ask you for
pity I was utterly worn out, body and soul.
I will not remind you, Armand, of the return you made for the
last proof of love that I gave you, and of the outrage by which
you drove away a dying woman, who could not resist your voice
when you asked her for a night of love, and who, like a fool,
thought for one instant that she might again unite the past with
the present. You had the right to do what you did, Armand; people
have not always put so high a price on a night of mine!
I left everything after that. Olympe has taken my place with the
Camille |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from When a Man Marries by Mary Roberts Rinehart: butler and--Miss Caruthers' arrival, have been upsetting."
He suddenly roused with a start from a brown reverie.
"I beg your pardon," he said, "I--oh, of course not! I was
wondering if I--if you were offended at what I said earlier in
the evening; the--Brushwood Boy, you know, and all that."
"Offended?" I repeated, puzzled.
"You see, I have been living out of the world so long, and never
seeing any women but Indian squaws"--so there were no Spanish
girls!--"that I'm afraid I say what comes into my mind without
circumlocution. And then--I did not know you were married."
"No, oh, no," I said hastily. "But, of course, the more a woman
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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 Aeneid by Virgil: Till, tir'd with toils, fair Italy he chose,
And in Evander's palace sought repose.
Now, falling by another's wound, his eyes
He cast to heav'n, on Argos thinks, and dies.
The pious Trojan then his jav'lin sent;
The shield gave way; thro' treble plates it went
Of solid brass, of linen trebly roll'd,
And three bull hides which round the buckler fold.
All these it pass'd, resistless in the course,
Transpierc'd his thigh, and spent its dying force.
The gaping wound gush'd out a crimson flood.
Aeneid |
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 Mother by Owen Wister: refusal had caused me to think more soberly. And though I was now bent
upon becoming an author and leaving Nassau Street, I burned no bridges
behind me, but merely filled my spare hours with writing and with showing
it to Ethel."
"It was now that the second area of perturbation of my life came to me. I
say the second, because the first had been the recent dawning belief that
Ethel thought about me when I was not there to remind her of myself. This
idea had stirred --but you will understand. And now, what was my proper,
my honourable course? It was a positive relief that at this crisis she
went to Florida. I could think more quietly. My writing had come to be
quite often accepted, sometimes even solicited. Should I speak to her,
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