| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: piece of crape," said the sexton.
"I don't like it," muttered an old woman, as she hobbled into the
meeting-house. "He has changed himself into something awful, only
by hiding his face."
"Our parson has gone mad!" cried Goodman Gray, following him
across the threshold.
A rumor of some unaccountable phenomenon had preceded Mr. Hooper
into the meeting-house, and set all the congregation astir. Few
could refrain from twisting their heads towards the door; many
stood upright, and turned directly about; while several little
boys clambered upon the seats, and came down again with a
Twice Told Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: wide and handsome easy-chair of his late friend; but there was
something mournful in the movement with which he dropped upon it. The
good soul was crushed by a presentiment of coming calamity. His eyes
roved successively to the handsome tall clock, the bureau, curtains,
chairs, carpets, to the stately bed, the basin of holy-water, the
crucifix, to a Virgin by Valentin, a Christ by Lebrun,--in short, to
all the accessories of this cherished room, while his face expressed
the anguish of the tenderest farewell that a lover ever took of his
first mistress, or an old man of his lately planted trees. The vicar
had just perceived, somewhat late it is true, the signs of a dumb
persecution instituted against him for the last three months by
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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 Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: That moment is not now. You weary him
With your uncouth insistence.
GUIDO. Honest Simone,
Some other night. To-night I am content
With the low music of Bianca's voice,
Who, when she speaks, charms the too amorous air,
And makes the reeling earth stand still, or fix
His cycle round her beauty.
SIMONE. You flatter her.
She has her virtues as most women have,
But beauty in a gem she may not wear.
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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 Soul of a Bishop by H. G. Wells: the little lives of men, demanding the little lives of men,
prepared to take them and guide them to the salvation of mankind
and the conquest of pain and death. I have seen him as the God of
the human affair, a God of politics, a God of such muddy and
bloody wars as this war, a God of economics, a God of railway
junctions and clinics and factories and evening schools, a God in
fact of men. This God--this God here, that you want to worship,
is a God of artists and poets--of elegant poets, a God of
bric-a-brac, a God of choice allusions. Oh, it has its grandeur!
I don't want you to think that what you are doing may not be
altogether fine and right for you to do. But it is not what I
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