| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: with his hand, some one shouted at him:
"Go and tell your papa."
He then felt a great sinking in his heart. They were stronger
than he, they had beaten him and he had no answer to give them,
for he knew it was true that he had no papa. Full of pride he
tried for some moments to struggle against the tears which were
suffocating him. He had a choking fit, and then without cries he
began to weep with great sobs which shook him incessantly. Then a
ferocious joy broke out among his enemies, and, just like savages
in fearful festivals, they took one another by the hand and
danced in a circle about him as they repeated in refrain:
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: visit your cave."
"As a rule, that is true," replied the Daemon; "yet you, who have done
no evil, are about to visit my cave at once; for to prove that I sincerely
regret my share in your capture I am going to permit you to escape."
This speech greatly surprised the prisoner, until he reflected that it
was just what might be expected of the Daemon of Repentance. The
fellow at once busied himself untying the knots that bound Santa Claus
and unlocking the chains that fastened him to the wall. Then he
led the way through a long tunnel until they both emerged in the
Cave of Repentance.
"I hope you will forgive me," said the Daemon pleadingly. "I am not
A Kidnapped Santa Claus |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: approved; for all of which he was said to be aping princes. The
Frapesle estate is immense. Before such luxury as this the Comte de
Mortsauf, with one family cariole,--which in Touraine is something
between a coach without springs and a post-chaise,--forced by limited
means to let or farm Clochegourde, was Tourangean up to the time when
royal favor restored the family to a distinction possibly unlooked
for. His greeting to me, the younger son of a ruined family whose
escutcheon dated back to the Crusades, was intended to show contempt
for the large fortune and to belittle the possessions, the woods, the
arable lands, the meadows, of a neighbor who was not of noble birth.
Monsieur de Chessel fully understood this. They always met politely;
The Lily of the Valley |
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 Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: a queen, and that no Indian one either.' And after that he often
jested about the Spanish ladies, saying that none could show us the
way to their hearts better than he. Which speeches I took no count
of then, sirs: but after I minded them, whether I would or not.
Well, sirs, we came to the shore of New Spain, near to the old
place--that's Nombre de Dios; and there Mr. Oxenham went ashore
into the woods with a boat's crew, to find the negroes who helped
us three years before. Those are the Cimaroons, gentles, negro
slaves who have fled from those devils incarnate, their Spanish
masters, and live wild, like the beasts that perish; men of great
stature, sirs, and fierce as wolves in the onslaught, but poor
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