| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Nana, Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille by Emile Zola: little golden hairs curling low down between her shoulders. It was
as though he had returned the kiss that had been given him upstairs.
Nana was in a fury; she lifted her hand, but when she recognized the
count she smiled.
"Oh, you frightened me," she said simply.
And her smile was adorable in its embarrassment and submissiveness,
as though she had despaired of this kiss and were happy to have
received it. But she could do nothing for him either that evening
or the day after. It was a case of waiting. Nay, even if it had
been in her power she would still have let herself be desired. Her
glance said as much. At length she continued:
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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 $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: admiring her, and you couldn't help imitating her; not even a King
Charles spaniel could remain entirely despicable in her society.
So, as you see, there was more to her than her education.
CHAPTER II
When I was well grown, at last, I was sold and taken away,
and I never saw her again. She was broken-hearted, and so was I,
and we cried; but she comforted me as well as she could, and said
we were sent into this world for a wise and good purpose, and must
do our duties without repining, take our life as we might find it,
live it for the best good of others, and never mind about the results;
they were not our affair. She said men who did like this would 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 Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: and then I must put on the Mackintosh trousers and wade out over my
hips into the water, and circumambulate the pond, throwing the flies
as far as possible toward the middle, and feeling my way carefully
along the bottom with the long net-handle, while Sandy danced on
the bank in an agony of apprehension lest his Predestinated Opportunity
should step into a deep hole and be drowned. It was a curious fact
in natural history that on the lochs with boats the trout were in
the shallow water, but in the boatless lochs they were away out in
the depths. "Juist the total depraivity o' troots," said Sandy,
"an' terrible fateegin'."
Sandy had an aversion to commit himself to definite statements on
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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: accession to the regency, one cannot but feel that she was fully
aware of the fact that she had been the wife of an emperor, and
was the mother of the heir, of a decaying house. Of the 218 years
that her dynasty had been in power, 120 had been occupied by the
reigns of two emperors, and only seven monarchs had sat upon the
throne, a smaller number than ever ruled during the same period
in all Chinese history. These two Emperors, Kang Hsi and Chien
Lung, the second and fourth, had each reigned for sixty years,
the most brilliant period of the "Great Pure Dynasty," unless we
except the last six years of the Empress Dowager's regency. The
other ninety-eight years saw five rulers rise and pass away,
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