| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: companions. At this the wrath of Lawless rose and broke.
"Steer yourselves," he bellowed, with a curse; and, careless of the
result, he left the helm.
The Good Hope was, at that moment, trembling on the summit of a
swell. She subsided, with sickening velocity, upon the farther
side. A wave, like a great black bulwark, hove immediately in
front of her; and, with a staggering blow, she plunged headforemost
through that liquid hill. The green water passed right over her
from stem to stern, as high as a man's knees; the sprays ran higher
than the mast; and she rose again upon the other side, with an
appalling, tremulous indecision, like a beast that has been deadly
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: Bessie Bell was distressed to be told that she did not know what she
was talking about--and she knew so much about Sisters.
So she began to cry, very softly.
Then she stopped crying long enough to say: ``But I never saw
Sisters like that before!''
Then she took up her crying again right where she left off.
Then a little boy--but he seemed a very large boy to Bessie Bell
with his long-striped-stocking-legs--said to Bessie Bell: ``No,
Bessie Bell, they are not Sisters like Sister Helen Vincula and the
Sisters that you know, but they are just what they say they are--
just own dear sisters.''
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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 Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: courting, the presents, the wedding, the building, the furniture,
and, later, innumerable new kinds of bills. But weren't all the
men around him married? Surely, if they, not nearly as well off
as himself, could afford it, so could he.
Besides, wasn't it all different now that he held this check in
his hand? These sixteen thousand dollars were not the same
dollars which he had extorted from close-fisted Nature. Each of
those had come so lamely, was such a symbol of sweat and aching
muscles, that to spend one was like parting with a portion of
himself, but this new, almost incredible fortune, had come
without a turn of his hand, without an hour's labor. To Martin,
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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 Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: wrinkles from his face with a handful of snow from the wayside. A
quarter of an hour later, Detective Muller entered the railway
station of the city, burdened with a large grip. He took a seat
in the night express which rolled out from the station a few moments
later.
As he was alone in his compartment, Muller gave way to his
excitement, sometimes even murmuring half-aloud the thoughts that
rushed through his brain. "Yes, I am convinced of it, but can I
find the proofs?" the words came again and again, and in spite of
the comfortable warmth in the compartment, in spite of his tired
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