| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Edition of The Ambassadors by Henry James: declared; "you'd really particularly like them. And I know"--it was
slightly irrelevant, but he gave it sudden and singular force--"I
know they'd like you!"
"Oh don't work them off on ME!" Waymarsh groaned.
Yet Strether still lingered with his hands in his pockets. "It's
really quite as indispensable as I say that Chad should be got
back."
"Indispensable to whom? To you?"
"Yes," Strether presently said.
"Because if you get him you also get Mrs. Newsome?"
Strether faced it. "Yes."
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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 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass: the whole year's wages; that I belonged to Mr. Covey
for one year, and that I must go back to him, come
what might; and that I must not trouble him with
any more stories, or that he would himself GET HOLD
OF ME. After threatening me thus, he gave me a very
large dose of salts, telling me that I might remain
in St. Michael's that night, (it being quite late,)
but that I must be off back to Mr. Covey's early
in the morning; and that if I did not, he would
~get hold of me,~ which meant that he would whip
me. I remained all night, and, according to his or-
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: We have said that the different pits communicated with
each other by means of long subterranean galleries.
Thus there existed beneath the county of Stirling
a vast tract, full of burrows, tunnels, bored with caves,
and perforated with shafts, a subterranean labyrinth,
which might be compared to an enormous ant-hill.
Miners, though belonging to different pits, often met, when going
to or returning from their work. Consequently there was a constant
opportunity of exchanging talk, and circulating the stories
which had their origin in the mine, from one pit to another.
These accounts were transmitted with marvelous rapidity,
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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 A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: "Why, the one pledge of which a great man can be sure, is given him by
his friend the pawnbroker," cried Blondet.
"If you want everything, you must owe for everything," called Bixiou.
"No," corrected des Lupeaulx, "if you owe for everything, you have had
everything."
The party contrived to convince the novice that his debts were a
golden spur to urge on the horses of the chariot of his fortunes.
There is always the stock example of Julius Caesar with his debt of
forty millions, and Friedrich II. on an allowance of one ducat a
month, and a host of other great men whose failings are held up for
the corruption of youth, while not a word is said of their wide-
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