| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: instant, as she laid her hand upon him, but he bore it. Then
some influence of calmness came; there swept by him a flood of
earlier, serener memories; he sat down in the window-seat
beside her, and when she put her face beside his, and her soft
hair touched his cheek, and he inhaled the rose-odor that
always clung round her, every atom of his manhood stood up to
drive away the intruding presence, and he again belonged to her
alone.
When he went to his chamber that night, he drew from his pocket
a little note in a girlish hand, which he lighted in the
candle, and put upon the open hearth to burn. With what a
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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 First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells: amidst the stick-like litter were these rounded bodies, these little oval
bodies that might have passed as very small pebbles. And now first one and
then another had stirred, had rolled over and cracked, and down the crack
of each of them showed a minute line of yellowish green, thrusting outward
to meet the hot encouragement of the newly-risen sun. For a moment that
was all, and then there stirred, and burst a third!
"It is a seed," said Cavor. And then I heard him whisper very softly,
"Life!"
"Life!" And immediately it poured upon us that our vast journey had not
been made in vain, that we had come to no arid waste of minerals, but to a
world that lived and moved! We watched intensely. I remember I kept
The First Men In The Moon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: teeth together afterwards with a sharp "click." The sound of that click
fascinated him; he repeated it quickly several times, with a snapping
movement of the jaws. What teeth! he thought. Sound as a bell, every man
jack of them. Never had one out, never had one stopped. That comes of no
tomfoolery in eating, and a good regular brushing night and morning. He
raised himself on his left elbow and waved his right arm over the side of
the bed to feel for the chair where he put his watch and chain overnight.
No chair was there--of course, he'd forgotten, there wasn't a chair in this
wretched spare room. Had to put the confounded thing under his pillow.
"Half-past eight, Sunday, breakfast at nine--time for the bath"--his brain
ticked to the watch. He sprang out of bed and went over to the window.
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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 Summer by Edith Wharton: there came over her a sense of the mysterious distance
between them; but usually his fits of abstraction were
followed by bursts of gaiety that chased away the
shadow before it chilled her.
She was still thinking of the ten dollars he had handed
to the driver of the run-about. It had given them
twenty minutes of pleasure, and it seemed unimaginable
that anyone should be able to buy amusement at that
rate. With ten dollars he might have bought her an
engagement ring; she knew that Mrs. Tom Fry's, which
came from Springfield, and had a diamond in it, had
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