| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: doze.
When my eyes opened I knew I had been awakened by something, but I could
not tell what. I listened. Cubby was as quiet as a mouse, and his very
quiet and the alert way he held his ears gave me a vague alarm. He had
heard something. I thought of the old hunter's return, yet this did not
reassure me.
All at once the voices of men made me sit up with a violent start. Who
could they be? Had Hiram met a ranger? I began to shake a little, and was
about to creep to the door when I heard the clink of stirrups and soft thud
of hoofs. Then followed more voices, and last a loud volley of curses.
"Herky-Jerky!" I gasped, and looked about wildly.
The Young Forester |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: thoughts from it as though its recollection made her a sharer in
her sister's debasement.
The next evening, Mr. Ramy reappeared, still somewhat sallow
and red-lidded, but otherwise his usual self. Ann Eliza consulted
him about the investment he had recommended, and after it had been
settled that he should attend to the matter for her he took up the
illustrated volume of Longfellow--for, as the sisters had learned,
his culture soared beyond the newspapers--and read aloud, with a
fine confusion of consonants, the poem on "Maidenhood." Evelina
lowered her lids while he read. It was a very beautiful evening,
and Ann Eliza thought afterward how different life might have been
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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 Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: horses' feet, drying up the bits of grass that grew between the
boulders of the gutter, scaling off the paint from the brazen
faces of the interminable brick houses. He looked down in that
city as in every American town, as in these where you and I live,
on the same countless maze of human faces going day by day
through the same monotonous routine. Knowles, passing through
the restless crowds, read with keen eye among them strange
meanings by this common light of the sun,--meanings such as you
and I might read, if our eyes were clear as his,--or morbid, it
may be, you think? A commonplace crowd like this in the street
without: women with cold, fastidious faces, heavy-brained,
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
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 Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: them talked their PATOIS only--looked at him angrily; and in a
twinkling I began to comprehend. But I affected dullness, and
laughed in scorn.
'Seeing is believing,' I said. 'I doubt if you knows good horse
when you see one, my friend.'
'Oh, don't I?' he said, winking. 'Indeed!'
'I doubt it,' I answered stubbornly.
'Then come with me, and I will show you one,' he retorted,
discretion giving way to vain-glory. His wife and the others, I
saw, looked at him dumbfounded; but, without paying any heed to
them, he rose, took up a lanthorn, and, assuming an air of
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