| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: banners up a fine staircase to the grand saloon, where we were
received by the host and hostess. Now of this grand saloon I must
try to give you a conception. It was, I should think, from seventy-
five to one hundred feet in length. The ceiling overhead was very
rich with hanging corbels, like stalactites, and the entire walls
were panelled, with a full-length family portrait in each panel,
which was arched at the top, so that the whole wall was composed of
these round-topped pictures with rich gilding between.
Notwithstanding its vast size, the sofas and tables were so disposed
all over the apartment as to give it the most friendly, warm, and
social aspect.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: The ram himself, see, dries his dripping fleece!"
DAMOETAS
"Back with the she-goats, Tityrus, grazing there
So near the river! I, when time shall serve,
Will take them all, and wash them in the pool."
MENALCAS
"Boys, get your sheep together; if the heat,
As late it did, forestall us with the milk,
Vainly the dried-up udders shall we wring."
DAMOETAS
"How lean my bull amid the fattening vetch!
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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 Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: was to keep the burro from cracking his little hard hoofs on
stones. Then she was riding on between dark, gleaming walls.
There were quiet and rest and coolness in this canyon. She noted
indifferently that they passed close under shady, bulging shelves
of cliff, through patches of grass and sage and thicket and
groves of slender trees, and over white, pebbly washes, and
around masses of broken rock. The burros trotted tirelessly; the
dogs, once more free, pattered tirelessly; and Lassiter led on
with never a stop, and at every open place he looked back. The
shade under the walls gave place to sunlight. And presently they
came to a dense thicket of slender trees, through which they
Riders of the Purple Sage |
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 Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: would not approach Camusot. The bailiff bringing the warrant of arrest
shrank back from the idea of dragging his prisoner out of bed, and
went back to Camusot before applying to the President of the Tribunal
of Commerce for an order to remove the debtor to a private hospital.
Camusot hurried at once to the Rue de la Lune, and Coralie went down
to him.
When she came up again she held the warrants, in which Lucien was
described as a tradesman, in her hand. How had she obtained those
papers from Camusot? What promise had she given? Coralie kept a sad,
gloomy silence, but when she returned she looked as if all the life
had gone out of her. She played in Camille Maupin's play, and
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