| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: face was ghastly pale, and his features were rigid, as if
incapable of assuming any other expression than the strong
despair which had hardened upon them. He gave not the slightest
evidence that he was aware of her approach.
"For the love of Heaven, Reuben, speak to me!" cried Dorcas; and
the strange sound of her own voice affrighted her even more than
the dead silence.
Her husband started, stared into her face, drew her to the front
of the rock, and pointed with his finger.
Oh, there lay the boy, asleep, but dreamless, upon the fallen
forest leaves! His cheek rested upon his arm--his curled locks
Mosses From An Old Manse |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: when a terrible calamity befell us. Chew was taken suddenly sick
with symptoms like those of poison, and in the course of a few
hours expired in the bottom of the canoe. We thus lost at once our
guide, our interpreter, our boatman, and our passport, for he was
all these in one; and found ourselves reduced, at a blow, to the
most desperate and irremediable distress. Chew, who took a great
pride in his knowledge, had indeed often lectured us on the
geography; and Ballantrae, I believe, would listen. But for my
part I have always found such information highly tedious; and
beyond the fact that we were now in the country of the Adirondack
Indians, and not so distant from our destination, could we but have
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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 Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: think how Miss Josephine St. Michael would have nodded over his adequacy
and shaken her head at his squandering it on such a companion. But it was
no squandering; the boy's heavy spirit was making a gallant "bluff" at
playing up with the lively party he had no choice but to join, and this
one saw the moment he was not called upon to play up.
The peaceful loveliness that floated from earth and water around me
triumphed over the jangling hilarity of the cabin, and I dozed away,
aware that they were now all thumping furiously in chorus, while Gazza
sang something that went, "Oh, she's my leetle preety poosee pet." When I
roused, it was Kitty's voice at the piano, but no change in the quality
of the song or the thumping; and Hortense was stepping on deck. She had a
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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 The Cavalry General by Xenophon: [6] Or, "thus at a trifling outlay he will be able to render so many
non-efficients useful." Al. "make the articles as good as new."
But if any one is disposed to dwell on the amount of trouble it will
cost him, if he is required to devote himself to horsemanship so
assiduously, let him console himself with the reflection that the
pains and labours undergone by any man in training for a gymnastic
contest are far larger and more formidable than any which the severest
training of the horseman will involve; and for this reason, that the
greater part of gymnastic exercises are performed "in the sweat of the
brow," while equestrian exercise is performed with pleasure. Indeed,
there is no accomplishment which so nearly realises the aspiration of
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