| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: goodwill by which the poor, who know by long experience the value of a
service and the warmth that fellowship brings, give expression to the
open-heartedness and the natural impulses of their souls; so artlessly
do they reveal their good qualities and their defects. The stranger
thanked her by a gesture full of gracious dignity, and took his place
between the young mother and the old soldier. Immediately behind him
sat a peasant and his son, a boy ten years of age. A beggar woman,
old, wrinkled, and clad in rags, was crouching, with her almost empty
wallet, on a great coil of rope that lay in the prow. One of the
rowers, an old sailor, who had known her in the days of her beauty and
prosperity, had let her come in "for the love of God," in the
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: mother's skirts.
Mrs. Willoughby hesitated. Miss Perkins was certainly taking a
long while for her argument with Julia. The glow from the red
powder outside the window was positively alarming.
"Dear me!" she said, "I wonder if there can be a fire." And with
this pretext for investigation, she, too, joined the little group
at the window.
A few moments later when Douglas entered for a fresh supply of
paper, the backs of the company were toward him. He crossed to
the study table without disturbing his visitors, and smiled to
himself at the eager way in which they were hanging out of the
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: that as soon as they put up a hare for their sport, if it be
anywhere within two or three miles, away she runs for the warren,
and there is an end of their pursuit; on the other hand, it makes
all the countrymen turn poachers, and destroy the hares by what
means they can. But this is a smaller matter, and of no great
import one way or other.
From this pleasant and agreeable day's work I returned to
Clarendon, and the next day took another short tour to the hills to
see that celebrated piece of antiquity, the wonderful Stonehenge,
being six miles from Salisbury, north, and upon the side of the
River Avon, near the town of Amesbury. It is needless that I
|
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 Octopus by Frank Norris: movement to send a whole shipload of wheat to the starving people
in India. Now, you horrid reactionnaire, are you satisfied?"
"I am very glad," murmured Presley.
"But I am afraid," observed Mrs. Cedarquist, "that we may be too
late. They are dying so fast, those poor people. By the time
our ship reaches India the famine may be all over."
"One need never be afraid of being 'too late' in the matter of
helping the destitute," answered Presley. "Unfortunately, they
are always a fixed quantity. 'The poor ye have always with
you.'"
"How very clever that is," said Mrs. Gerard.
|
