| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: bronc," neatly clad in a simple white lawn with blue trimmings.
She looked like a gleam of sunshine in her fresh, sweet youth;
and not even in her own school room had she ever found herself
the focus of a cleaner, more unstinted admiration. For the
outdoors West takes off its hat reverently to women worthy of
respect, especially when they are young and friendly.
Helen Messiter had come to Wyoming because the call of adventure,
the desire for experience outside of rutted convention, were
stirring her warm-blooded youth. She had seen enough of life
lived in a parlor, and when there came knocking at her door a
chance to know the big, untamed outdoors at first hand she had at
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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 Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: swelling and beating of the heart, to explain his position to the Abbe
Troubert.
The canon listened in a cold, grave manner, trying, but in vain, to
repress an occasional smile which to more intelligent eyes than those
of the vicar might have betrayed the emotions of a secret
satisfaction. A flame seemed to dart from his eyelids when Birotteau
pictured with the eloquence of genuine feeling the constant bitterness
he was made to swallow; but Troubert laid his hand above those lids
with a gesture very common to thinkers, maintaining the dignified
demeanor which was usual with him. When the vicar had ceased to speak
he would indeed have been puzzled had he sought on Troubert's face,
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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 Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: say, if your highness is pleased to accept of my services for a few
days."
To which the duchess made answer, "that worthy Sancho is droll I
consider a very good thing, because it is a sign that he is shrewd;
for drollery and sprightliness, Senor Don Quixote, as you very well
know, do not take up their abode with dull wits; and as good Sancho is
droll and sprightly I here set him down as shrewd."
"And talkative," added Don Quixote.
"So much the better," said the duke, "for many droll things cannot
be said in few words; but not to lose time in talking, come, great
Knight of the Rueful Countenance-"
Don Quixote |
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 God The Invisible King by H. G. Wells: cultivation, construction, maintenance, and the honest satisfaction
of honest practical human needs. For such people conversion to the
intimacy of God means at most a change in the spirit of their work,
a refreshed energy, a clearer understanding, a new zeal, a completer
disregard of gains and praises and promotion. Pay, honours, and the
like cease to be the inducement of effort. Service, and service
alone, is the criterion that the quickened conscience will
recognise.
Most of such people will find themselves in positions in which
service is mingled with activities of a baser sort, in which service
is a little warped and deflected by old traditions and usage, by
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