| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Soul of a Bishop by H. G. Wells: Should he do something very bold and striking? Should he invite
both men and masters to the cathedral, and preach tremendous
sermons to them upon these living issues?
Short sermons, of course.
But stating the church's attitude with a new and convincing
vigour.
He had a vision of the great aisle strangely full and alive and
astir. The organ notes still echoed in the fretted vaulting, as
the preacher made his way from the chancel to the pulpit. The
congregation was tense with expectation, and for some reason his
mind dwelt for a long time upon the figure of the preacher
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: in her survey of the subject, comment on this. This phenomenon,
not only on account of the numerical findings, but also from a
logical standpoint, is easily seen to be the expression, in
another form of conduct, of the essential tendencies of the
pathological liar. It is part of the general character
instability, the unwillingness to meet the realities of life, the
inclination to escape consequences. As a matter of fact,
frequently the pathological liar gets himself in a tight place by
lying, and then the easiest escape is by running away from the
scene. The delinquencies of our present group as given below can
with profit be compared with our previous statistics[26] on a
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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 Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: tried something. Smervits, you didn't fail, but you didn't try
anything, either. You're fired."
* * *
One day the power went off in the mine, leaving the miners in
absolute darkness. One miner found a match and lit it. "What a
dinky little flame," said one of his companions, with contempt.
"What a great light in the darkness," said another, with awe.
* * *
"Just think," said the man in the orange hard hat, "to us that's just
a useless pile of rock. But to someone with greater vision it has
value. It can be changed by his direction into something useful."
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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 When a Man Marries by Mary Roberts Rinehart: We all met downstairs in the living room, quite informally, and
Dallas was banging away at the pianola, tramping the pedals with
the delicacy and feeling of a football center rush kicking a
goal. Mr. Harbison was standing near the fire, a little away from
the others, and he was all that Anne had said and more in
appearance. He was tall--not too tall, and very straight. And
after one got past the oddity of his face being bronze-colored
above his white collar, and of his brown hair being sun-bleached
on top until it was almost yellow, one realized that he was very
handsome. He had what one might call a resolute nose and chin,
and a pleasant, rather humorous, mouth. And he had blue eyes that
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