| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: flesh, and a warm, thick liquid flow over my hand and arm.
Chapter VIII.
THE DANCE OF THE SUN.
It seemed to me then in the minutes that followed that there
were thousands of black demons in that black hole. At the first
rushing impact I shouted to Harry: "Keep your back to the wall,"
and for response I got a high, ringing laugh that breathed the joy
of battle.
The thing was sickening. Harry is a natural fighting man; I
am not. Without the wall at our backs we would have been
overpowered in thirty seconds; as it was, we were forced to handle
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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 Jolly Corner by Henry James: strangely, when he had in a couple of minutes become aware of this,
it counted somehow for help. He couldn't have spoken, the tone of
his voice would have scared him, and the common conceit or resource
of "whistling in the dark" (whether literally or figuratively) have
appeared basely vulgar; yet he liked none the less to hear himself
go, and when he had reached his first landing - taking it all with
no rush, but quite steadily - that stage of success drew from him a
gasp of relief.
The house, withal, seemed immense, the scale of space again
inordinate; the open rooms, to no one of which his eyes deflected,
gloomed in their shuttered state like mouths of caverns; only the
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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 Hellenica by Xenophon: than fifteen hundred men. His disembarked, and soon became master of
the island, the country district falling a prey to the spoiler. It was
in a high state of cultivation, and rich with fruit-trees, not to
speak of magnificent dwelling-houses and wine-cellars fitted up on the
farms: so that, it was said, the soldiers reached such a pitch of
luxury that they refused to drink wine which had not a fine bouquet. A
crowd of slaves, too, and fat beasts were captured on the estates.
The general's next move was to encamp with his land forces about
three-quarters of a mile[4] from the city district, so that any
Corcyraean who attempted to leave the city to go into the country
would certainly be cut off on that side. The fleet he stationed on the
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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 Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde: about these things, and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to
listen to all the wonderful things the Miller used to say about the
unselfishness of true friendship.
"So little Hans worked away in his garden. During the spring, the
summer, and the autumn he was very happy, but when the winter came,
and he had no fruit or flowers to bring to the market, he suffered
a good deal from cold and hunger, and often had to go to bed
without any supper but a few dried pears or some hard nuts. In the
winter, also, he was extremely lonely, as the Miller never came to
see him then.
"'There is no good in my going to see little Hans as long as the
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