| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: transparent fichu, garnet pendants in her ears, her hair in ringlets,
the wily /jeannette/ round her throat, black satin slippers, gray silk
stockings, and /gants de Suede/; add to these things the manners of a
queen and the coquetry of a young girl determined to capture Rogron.
Her mother, calm and dignified, retained, as did her daughter, a
certain aristocratic insolence, with which the two women hedged
themselves and preserved the spirit of their caste. Bathilde was a
woman of intelligence, a fact which Vinet alone had discovered during
the two months' stay the ladies had made at his house. When he had
fully fathomed the mind of the girl, wounded and disappointed as it
was by the fruitlessness of her beauty and her youth, and enlightened
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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 Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: carried passengers across the Ohio River. It was very likely this
experience which, three years later, brought him another. Mr.
Gentry, the chief man of the village of Gentryville that had
grown up a mile or so from his father's cabin, loaded a flatboat
on the Ohio River with the produce his store had collected--corn,
flour, pork, bacon, and other miscellaneous provisions--and
putting it in charge of his son Allen Gentry and of Abraham
Lincoln, sent them with it down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers,
to sell its cargo at the plantations of the lower Mississippi,
where sugar and cotton were the principal crops, and where other
food supplies were needed to feed the slaves. No better proof is
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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 The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: room, doctor," turning entreatingly to Stone.
The physician looked at her compassionately. "I will, just as soon
as the coroner views the body," he promised. "But come away now,
Babs; this is no place for you and Helen." He signed to the deputy
marshal to open the door as he walked across the room, Barbara
keeping step with him, and her sister following in their wake.
At the door Barbara paused and looked back.
"Will there be an inquest?" she asked.
"That's for the coroner to decide," responded Ferguson. "As long
as Mr. Turnbull entered your house on a wager and died from an
attack of angina pectoris the inquest is likely to be a mere
The Red Seal |
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 Mountains by Stewart Edward White: dough. Into the dough went raisins that had previously
been boiled to swell them up. Thus was the
cake mixed. Now I poured half the dough into the
Dutch oven, sprinkled it with a good layer of sugar,
cinnamon, and unboiled raisins; poured in the rest
of the dough; repeated the layer of sugar, cinnamon,
and raisins; and baked in the Dutch oven. It
was gorgeous, and we ate it at one fell swoop.
While we are about it, we may as well work backwards
on this particular orgy by describing the rest of our
dessert. In addition to the cake and some stewed
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