| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: It appeared that Randolph's vigil was in fact triumphantly prolonged,
for Winterbourne strolled about with the young girl for some
time without meeting her mother. "I have been looking round
for that lady you want to introduce me to," his companion resumed.
"She's your aunt." Then, on Winterbourne's admitting the fact
and expressing some curiosity as to how she had learned it,
she said she had heard all about Mrs. Costello from the chambermaid.
She was very quiet and very comme il faut; she wore white puffs;
she spoke to no one, and she never dined at the table d'hote.
Every two days she had a headache. "I think that's a lovely
description, headache and all!" said Miss Daisy, chattering along
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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 Iron Puddler by James J. Davis: strike--our jobs or the outsiders' jobs? If the man who started
this strike has a job that won't be lost in the strike, then I
claim that we have made a bad mistake. And if we're making a
mistake, men, what are we going to do about it?"
I sat down, exhausted by the first attempt at public pleading I
had ever made. Everything grew dark about me, and I knew that I
had done my best and that I was through. I was quite young, and I
went to pieces like an untrained runner who had overdone himself.
The men were talking to one another, and somebody moved that
the meeting take a recess until after supper. It would give time
to think it over and find out what the men really thought about
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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 Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: the eye; and this will have led, at first consciously and at last habitually,
to the contraction of the muscles round the eyes in order to protect them.
At the same time the spasmodic pressure on the surface of the eye,
and the distension of the vessels within the eye, without necessarily
entailing any conscious sensation, will have affected, through reflex action,
the lacrymal glands. Finally, through the three principles of nerve-force
readily passing along accustomed channels--of association, which is so
widely extended in its power--and of certain actions, being more under
the control of the will than others--it has come to pass that suffering
readily causes the secretion of tears, without being necessarily accompanied
by any other action.
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
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 Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: husband from her: torments of jealousy preyed upon her heart and
renewed her love. What could she do against Science? Should she combat
that tyrannous, unyielding, growing power? Could she kill an invisible
rival? Could a woman, limited by nature, contend with an Idea whose
delights are infinite, whose attractions are ever new? How make head
against the fascination of ideas that spring the fresher and the
lovelier out of difficulty, and entice a man so far from this world
that he forgets even his dearest loves?
At last one day, in spite of Balthazar's strict orders, Madame Claes
resolved to follow him, to shut herself up in the garret where his
life was spent, and struggle hand to hand against her rival by sharing
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