| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: Ann Eliza made no answer. The clutch of an unformulated doubt
had checked the words on her lips. She had meant, on the day of
her sister's marriage, to give Evelina the other half of their
common savings; but something warned her not to say so now.
The sisters undressed without farther words. After they had
gone to bed, and the light had been put out, the sound of Evelina's
weeping came to Ann Eliza in the darkness, but she lay motionless
on her own side of the bed, out of contact with her sister's shaken
body. Never had she felt so coldly remote from Evelina.
The hours of the night moved slowly, ticked off with wearisome
insistence by the clock which had played so prominent a part in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: back to the scenery. He gave his laisser-faire chuckle, and laid a hand
on my shoulder." Don't worry 'em with forts and islands, old boy! They
know what they want. No living breed on earth knows better what it
wants."
"Well, they don't get it."
"Ho, don't they?"
"The cold fear of ennui gnaws at their vitals this minute."
Shrill laughter from Kitty and Gazza served to refute my theory.
"Of course, very few know what's the matter with them," I added. "You
seldom spot an organic disease at the start."
"Hm," said Beverly, lengthily. "You put a pin through some of 'em.
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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 The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: "Give it me, arrow and all," said the knight. And when he had
taken into his hand the shaft, he continued for some time to gaze
upon it in a sullen musing. "Ay," he said, addressing Lord
Shoreby, "here is a hate that followeth hard and close upon my
heels. This black stick, or its just likeness, shall yet bring me
down. And, gossip, suffer a plain knight to counsel you; and if
these hounds begin to wind you, flee! 'Tis like a sickness - it
still hangeth, hangeth upon the limbs. But let us see what they
have written. It is as I thought, my lord; y' are marked, like an
old oak, by the woodman; to-morrow or next day, by will come the
axe. But what wrote ye in a letter?"
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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 The Riverman by Stewart Edward White: poles clamped in their peavies, and, using these implements as
handles, carried the booms some distance back into the woods. Then
everybody tramped back and forth, round and about, to confuse the
trail. Orde was like a mischievous boy at a school prank. When the
last timber had been concealed, he lifted up his deep voice in a
roar of joy, in which the crew joined.
"Now let's turn in for a little sleep," said be.
This situation, perhaps a little cloudy in the reader's mind, would
have cleared could he have looked out over the dam pond the
following morning. The blazed logs belonging to Heinzman, drifting
slowly, had sucked down into the corner toward the power canal
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