| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: smallest matters; no detail, however trifling in appearance, was
without its interest and importance to him.
¹A novelist, died 1895.
²One of the authors of "Junker Schmidt."
His "Circle of Reading," November 7, the day he died, is
devoted entirely to thoughts on death.
"Life is a dream, death is an awakening," he wrote, while in
expectation of that awakening.
Apropos of the "Circle of Reading," I cannot refrain from
relating a characteristic incident which I was told by one of my
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: and shot a glance at her out of the dark depths of almond-shaped eyes
with purpled lids, and those faint lines about them which tell of
pleasures as costly as painful fatigue. With those eyes upon her, she
said--'Your address?'
" 'What want of address!'
" 'Oh, pshaw!' she said, smiling. 'A bird on the bough?'
" 'Good-bye, madame, you are such a woman as I seek, but my fortune is
far from equaling my desire----'
"He bowed, and there and then left her. Two days later, by one of the
strange chances that can only happen in Paris, he had betaken himself
to a money-lending wardrobe dealer to sell such of his clothing as he
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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 Betty Zane by Zane Grey: lengthened, the thought of giving up never occurred to the women. Death there
would be sweet compared to what it would be at the hands of the redmen.
At sunrise Silas Zane, bare-chested, his face dark and fierce, strode into the
bastion which was connected with the blockhouse. It was a small shedlike room,
and with portholes opening to the river and the forest. This bastion had seen
the severest fighting. Five men had been killed here. As Silas entered four
haggard and powder-begrimed men, who were kneeling before the portholes,
looked up at him. A dead man lay in one corner.
"Smith's dead. That makes fifteen," said Silas. "Fifteen out of forty-two,
that leaves twenty-seven. We must hold out. Len, don't expose yourselves
recklessly. How goes it at the south bastion?"
Betty Zane |
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 Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: kinder chilly."
He looked again into the blank faces; still no one spoke. He
stepped forward, trembling with anxiety. A sudden fear clutched
at his heart, the muscles of his face worked pitifully, the red
painted lips began to quiver.
"It ain't-- It ain't that, is it?" he faltered, unable to utter
the word that filled him with horror.
Even Miss Perkins was momentarily touched by the anguish in the
old man's voice. "I guess you will find the person you are
looking for upstairs," she answered tartly; and flounced out of
the house, calling to Julia and the others to follow her, and
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