| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: he continued, "to business. Open your box at once, and let me see
what it contains."
Silas changed colour.
"I almost fear to look upon it," he exclaimed.
"Nay," replied the Prince, "have you not looked at it already?
This is a form of sentimentality to be resisted. The sight of a
sick man, whom we can still help, should appeal more directly to
the feelings than that of a dead man who is equally beyond help or
harm, love or hatred. Nerve yourself, Mr. Scuddamore," and then,
seeing that Silas still hesitated, "I do not desire to give another
name to my request," he added.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: least, the lewd effeminate traitor!' And filling the glass
to the brim, he drank a king's damnation. Ah, if he had the
power of Louis, what a king were here!
The minutes followed each other into the past, and still he
persevered in this debilitating cycle of emotions, still fed
the fire of his excitement with driblets of Rhine wine: a boy
at odds with life, a boy with a spark of the heroic, which he
was now burning out and drowning down in futile reverie and
solitary excess.
From two rooms beyond, the sudden sound of a raised voice
attracted him.
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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 Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: precipitated stray crumbs into our laps. "Gut!" murmured
she, coyly, and leaned one hand on a portly hip in an
attitude of waiting.
"Coffee?" asked Blackie, turning to me. I nodded.
"Zweimal Kaffee?" beamed Roschen, grasping the idea.
"Now's your time to speak up," urged Blackie. "Go
ahead an' order all the cream gefillte things that looked
good to you out in front."
But I leaned forward, lowering my voice discreetly.
"Blackie, before I plunge in too recklessly, tell me, are
their prices very--"
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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 Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: of her own desires and interests. In the face of clear
apperception of her fault, the tendency to react to a situation
by lying sometimes appears to be fairly imperative. The only
ascertained bases of the tendency are her early reactions,
unthwarted by parental control, followed by habit formation; all
in an environment peculiarly favorable to deception. The lying
passed over into swindling.
Gertrude S., who immigrated from England with her parents ten
years previously, was seen by us when she was 17, after she had
been engaged for months in a career of misrepresentation which
had led her case into the hands of several social agencies. Much
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