| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: slower thinking.
"What's your tailor's name?"
"Name? Trotter. Why?"
Emma McChesney had the telephone operator before he could finish.
"Get me Trotter, the tailor, T-r-o-double- t-e-r. Say I want to
speak to the tailor who fits Mr. Ed Meyers, of the Sans-Silk
Skirt Company."
T. A. Buck leaned forward, mouth open, eyes wide. "Well, what
in the name of----"
"I'll let you know in a minute. Maybe I'm wrong. It's just one
of my hunches. But for ten years I sold Featherlooms through
Emma McChesney & Co. |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: in a moment.
"I knew it," declared Ambrose. "Never seen a Greaser who could
face gun-play. That was some warm. And Monty Price never
flashed a gun! He'll never get over that. I reckon, Miss
Harnmond, we're some lucky to avoid trouble. Gene had his way,
as you seen. We'll be makin' tracks for the ranch in about two
shakes."
"Why?" whispered Madeline, breathlessly. She became conscious
that she was weak and shaken.
"Because the guerrillas sure will get their nerve back, and come
sneakin' on our trail or try to head us off by ambushin',"
The Light of Western Stars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: his wife, was mocked with an apparition only, and the gods afterwards
contrived his death as the punishment of his cowardliness. The love of
Achilles, like that of Alcestis, was courageous and true; for he was
willing to avenge his lover Patroclus, although he knew that his own death
would immediately follow: and the gods, who honour the love of the beloved
above that of the lover, rewarded him, and sent him to the islands of the
blest.
Pausanias, who was sitting next, then takes up the tale:--He says that
Phaedrus should have distinguished the heavenly love from the earthly,
before he praised either. For there are two loves, as there are two
Aphrodites--one the daughter of Uranus, who has no mother and is the elder
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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 Master of the World by Jules Verne: chauffeur did not return, his apparition would have to be placed
among those superhuman mysteries which it is not given to man to
understand.
We had fully discussed this affair, the chief and I; and I thought
that our interview was at an end, when, after pacing the room for a
few moments, he said abruptly, "Yes, what happened there at Milwaukee
was very strange. But here is something no less so!"
With this he handed me a report which he had received from Boston, on
a subject of which the evening papers had just begun to apprise their
readers. While I read it, Mr. Ward was summoned from the room. I
seated myself by the window and studied with extreme attention the
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