| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: Ten to one but he guesses the reason, and that is exactly
what I want to avoid, so I shall insist on his keeping his
conjecture to himself."
Isabella's opinion of the Tilneys did not influence
her friend; she was sure there had been no insolence
in the manners either of brother or sister; and she
did not credit there being any pride in their hearts.
The evening rewarded her confidence; she was met by one with
the same kindness, and by the other with the same attention,
as heretofore: Miss Tilney took pains to be near her,
and Henry asked her to dance.
Northanger Abbey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: she tightened her mouth. She knew. This sweet-
tempered, anxious-to-please Annie was entirely sane,
she had unusual self-poise. She KNEW that she knew
what she did and said, and what she did not do or
say, and a strange comprehension of her family over-
whelmed her. Her sisters were truthful; she would
not admit anything else, even to herself; but they
confused desires and impulses with accomplishment.
They had done so all their lives, some of them from
intense egotism, some possibly from slight twists in
their mental organisms. As for her father, he had
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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 Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: would doubtless even have carried him further but for an accident,
superficially slight, which moved him, quite in another direction,
with a force beyond any of his impressions of Egypt or of India.
It was a thing of the merest chance--the turn, as he afterwards
felt, of a hair, though he was indeed to live to believe that if
light hadn't come to him in this particular fashion it would still
have come in another. He was to live to believe this, I say,
though he was not to live, I may not less definitely mention, to do
much else. We allow him at any rate the benefit of the conviction,
struggling up for him at the end, that, whatever might have
happened or not happened, he would have come round of himself to
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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 Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: is a chief too - his chief name, Iiga (Ee-eeng-a), he has not
yet 'taken' because of his youth. We were in fine society,
and had a pleasant meal-time, with lots of fun. Then to the
Opera - I beg your pardon, I mean the Circus. We occupied
the first row in the reserved seats, and there in the row
behind were all our friends - Captain Foss and his Captain-
Lieutenant, three of the American officers, very nice
fellows, the Dr., etc, so we made a fine show of what an
embittered correspondent of the local paper called 'the
shoddy aristocracy of Apia'; and you should have seen how we
carried on, and how I clapped, and Captain Foss hollered
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