| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: XIX
Louis Bassett, when he started to the old Livingstone ranch, now
the Wasson place, was carefully turning over in his mind David's
participation in the escape of Judson Clark. Certain phases of it
were quite clear, provided one accepted the fact that, following a
heavy snowfall, an Easterner and a tenderfoot had gone into the
mountains alone, under conditions which had caused the posse after
Judson Clark to turn back and give him up for dead.
Had Donaldson sent him there, knowing he was a medical man? If he
had, would Maggie Donaldson not have said so? She had said "a man
outside that she had at first thought was a member of the searching
The Breaking Point |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: "Patrick," answered Tattine seriously, "we do not want this to be a city 'At
Home.' I don't care for them at all. Everybody stays for just a little while,
and everybody talks at once, and as loudly as they can, and at some of them
they only have tea and a little cake or something like that to eat," and
Tattine glanced at the kitchen-table over by the window with a smile and a
shake of the head, as though very much better pleased with what she saw there.
A pair of chickens lay ready for broiling on a blue china platter. Several
ears of corn were husked ready for the pot they were to be boiled in. A plate
of cold potatoes looked as though waiting for the frying-pan, and from the
depths of a glass fruit-dish a beautiful pile of Fall-pippins towered up to a
huge red apple at the top.
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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 From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: think on was to keep her out at sea as far as they could, for fear
of a point of land called the Dead Man's Head, which lies to the
eastward of Falmouth Haven; and then, if they could escape the
land, thought to run in for Plymouth next morning, so, if possible,
to save their lives.
"In this frighted condition they drove away at a prodigious rate,
having sometimes the bonnet of their foresail a little out, but the
yard lowered almost to the deck--sometimes the ship almost under
water, and sometimes above, keeping still in the offing, for fear
of the land, till they might see daylight. But when the day broke
they found they were to think no more of Plymouth, for they were
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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 The Jolly Corner by Henry James: particular mild irony with which he found half her talk suffused;
an irony without bitterness and that came, exactly, from her having
so much imagination - not, like the cheap sarcasms with which one
heard most people, about the world of "society," bid for the
reputation of cleverness, from nobody's really having any. It was
agreeable to him at this very moment to be sure that when he had
answered, after a brief demur, "Well, yes; so, precisely, you may
put it!" her imagination would still do him justice. He explained
that even if never a dollar were to come to him from the other
house he would nevertheless cherish this one; and he dwelt,
further, while they lingered and wandered, on the fact of the
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