| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: has been an extraordinary case, that is certain. She has preached
a sermon, indeed, if she has wrought this upon you.
W.A. - Why, I first told her the nature of our laws about marriage,
and what the reasons were that men and women were obliged to enter
into such compacts as it was neither in the power of one nor other
to break; that otherwise, order and justice could not be
maintained, and men would run from their wives, and abandon their
children, mix confusedly with one another, and neither families be
kept entire, nor inheritances be settled by legal descent.
R.C. - You talk like a civilian, Will. Could you make her
understand what you meant by inheritance and families? They know
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bab:A Sub-Deb, Mary Roberts Rinehart by Mary Roberts Rinehart: I had never spoken to him, nor indeed seen him, except for his
pictures. But the very mention of his name brought a lump to my Throat.
Feeling better imediately, I got Sis out of the room and coaxed
Hannah to bring me some dinner. While she was sneaking it out of
the Pantrey I was dressing, and soon, as a new being, I was out on
the stone bench at the foot of the lawn, gazing with wrapt
eyes at the sea.
But Fate was against me. Eddie Perkins saw me there and came over.
He had but recently been put in long trowsers, and those not his
best ones but only white flannels. He was never sure of his
garters, and was always looking to see if his socks were coming
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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 Adieu by Honore de Balzac: Philippe's danger, or at the fight which ended in the pillage of the
carriage and their expulsion from it.
At first de Sucy took the hand of the young countess, as if to show
her his affection, and the grief he felt at seeing her reduced to such
utter misery; then he grew silent; seated beside her on a heap of snow
which was turning into a rivulet as it melted, he yielded himself up
to the happiness of being warm, forgetting their peril, forgetting all
things. His face assumed, in spite of himself, an expression of almost
stupid joy, and he waited with impatience until the fragment of the
mare given to his orderly was cooked. The smell of the roasting flesh
increased his hunger, and his hunger silenced his heart, his courage,
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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 Vision Splendid by William MacLeod Raine: one more good story they must hear. Since only routine business
was under way there was no urgency, and when at length they
returned to the House chamber the clock pointed to five minutes to
twelve.
Rawson and two or three of the staunchest Hardy men relieved
Farnum of his charge in the cloak room and took care of the two
doubtfuls. The seats of Bentley, Miller, Pitts and Killen were
still vacant, and there was a tense watchfulness in the room that
showed rumors were flying of a break in the deadlock.
Already the state senators were drifting in for the noon joint
sessions, and along with them came presently the missing
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