| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: Tory Government will do it. Marilla, what if that cake doesn't rise?"
"We'll have plenty without it" was Marilla's unimpassioned way of
looking at the subject.
The cake did rise, however, and came out of the oven as light and
feathery as golden foam. Anne, flushed with delight, clapped it
together with layers of ruby jelly and, in imagination, saw Mrs.
Allan eating it and possibly asking for another piece!
"You'll be using the best tea set, of course, Marilla," she said.
"Can I fix the table with ferns and wild roses?"
"I think that's all nonsense," sniffed Marilla. "In my opinion
it's the eatables that matter and not flummery decorations."
Anne of Green Gables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: into a passion, rancorous in his judicial way."
"But there is goodness in him," cried Finot; "he is devoted to his
friends. The first thing he did was to take Godeschal, Mariette's
brother, as his head-clerk."
"At Paris," said Blondet, "there are attorneys of two shades. There is
the honest man attorney; he abides within the province of the law,
pushes on his cases, neglects no one, never runs after business, gives
his clients his honest opinion, and makes them compromise on doubtful
points--he is a Derville, in short. Then there is the starveling
attorney, to whom anything seems good provided that he is sure of
expenses; he will set, not mountains fighting, for he sells them, but
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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 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: But one of them, the captain of the Monroe, knowing that Ned Land had
shipped on board the Abraham Lincoln, begged for his help in chasing
a whale they had in sight. Commander Farragut, desirous of seeing
Ned Land at work, gave him permission to go on board the Monroe.
And fate served our Canadian so well that, instead of one whale,
he harpooned two with a double blow, striking one straight to the heart,
and catching the other after some minutes' pursuit.
Decidedly, if the monster ever had to do with Ned Land's harpoon,
I would not bet in its favour.
The frigate skirted the south-east coast of America with great rapidity.
The 3rd of July we were at the opening of the Straits of Magellan, level with
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
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 A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: of faint white which marked her flanks.
The profuse light cast down by the sun made this living gold, these
russet markings, to burn in a way to give them an indefinable
attraction.
The man and the panther looked at one another with a look full of
meaning; the coquette quivered when she felt her friend stroke her
head; her eyes flashed like lightning--then she shut them tightly.
"She has a soul," he said, looking at the stillness of this queen of
the sands, golden like them, white like them, solitary and burning
like them.
"Well," she said, "I have read your plea in favor of beasts; but how
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