| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: infernally hot--and then that confounded cigarette smoke--he had
noticed once or twice that she looked pale--she mustn't come to
another Saturday. She felt herself yielding, as she always did,
to the warm influence of his concern for her, the feminine in her
leaning on the man in him with a conscious intensity of
abandonment. He put her in the hansom, and her hand stole into
his in the darkness. A tear or two rose, and she let them fall.
It was so delicious to cry over imaginary troubles!
That evening, after dinner, he surprised her by reverting to the
subject of his talk. He combined a man's dislike of
uncomfortable questions with an almost feminine skill in eluding
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: Imagine you being here! Do you know you have SAVED me!'
Madeline regarded her in silence, while a pallor spread over her
face and lips, and her features grew sharp with a presage of pain.
'Have I?' she stammered. She could not think.
'Indeed you have. I don't know how to be grateful enough to you.
Your telegram of yesterday reached me at Solon. We had just sat
down to tiffin. Nothing will ever shake my faith in providence
again! My dear, THINK of it--after all I've been through, my
darling Val--and one hundred thousand pounds!'
'Well?'
'Well--I stayed behind there last night, and Val came on here and
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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 Chouans by Honore de Balzac: wrapped in a mantle of English material, and that the shape of her
hat, foreign no doubt, did not belong to any of the styles called
Greek, which ruled the Parisian fashions of the period. Corentin was
one of those beings who are compelled by the bent of their natures to
suspect evil rather than good, and he instantly doubted the
citizenship of the two travellers. The lady, who, on her side, had
made her observations on the person of Corentin with equal rapidity,
turned to her son with a significant look which may be faithfully
translated into the words: "Who is this queer man? Is he of our
stripe?"
To this mute inquiry the youth replied by an attitude and a gesture
The Chouans |
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 Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: On a December morning when the Babbitts went to church, Dr. John Jennison Drew
was unusually eloquent. The crowd was immense. Ten brisk young ushers, in
morning coats with white roses, were bringing folding chairs up from the
basement. There was an impressive musical program, conducted by Sheldon
Smeeth, educational director of the Y.M.C.A., who also sang the offertory.
Babbitt cared less for this, because some misguided person had taught young
Mr. Smeeth to smile, smile, smile while he was singing, but with all the
appreciation of a fellow-orator he admired Dr. Drew's sermon. It had the
intellectual quality which distinguished the Chatham Road congregation from
the grubby chapels on Smith Street.
"At this abundant harvest-time of all the year," Dr. Drew chanted, "when,
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