| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: that stood leaning slightly above the ship. The cat-
heads had burned away, and the two red-hot anchors had
gone to the bottom, tearing out after them two hundred
fathom of red-hot chain. The ship trembled, the mass of
flame swayed as if ready to collapse, and the fore top-
gallant-mast fell. It darted down like an arrow of fire,
shot under, and instantly leaping up within an oar's-
length of the boats, floated quietly, very black on the
luminous sea. I hailed the deck again. After some time
a man in an unexpectedly cheerful but also muffled tone,
as though he had been trying to speak with his mouth
Youth |
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 Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: The clock on the mantle struck two.
"A thousand dollars for every year of my life," she said. "You
and I, Uxbridge, know the value and beauty of money.
"Yes, there is beauty in money, and"--looking at me--"beauty
without it."
"The striking of the clock," I soliloquized, "proves that this
scene is not a phantasm."
"Margaret is fatigued," he said, rising. "May I come to-morrow?"
"It is my part only," replied Aunt Eliza, "to see that she is,
or is not, Cinderella."
"If you have ever thought of me, aunt, as an individual, you must
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