| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: his accident, and the friendly intervention of the tenants
occupying the fourth floor, he could not hinder her from
following the instinct of her kind; she mentioned the two
strangers, speaking of them as prompted by the interests of her
policy and the subterranean opinions of the porter's lodge.
"Ah," said she, "they were, no doubt, Mademoiselle Leseigneur and
her mother, who have lived here these four years. We do not know
exactly what these ladies do; in the morning, only till the hour
of noon, an old woman who is half deaf, and who never speaks any
more than a wall, comes in to help them; in the evening, two or
three old gentlemen, with loops of ribbon, like you, monsieur,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: There were the brazen women, as she called them, of the higher and
the lower fashion, whose squanderings and graspings, whose
struggles and secrets and love-affairs and lies, she tracked and
stored up against them till she had at moments, in private, a
triumphant vicious feeling of mastery and ease, a sense of carrying
their silly guilty secrets in her pocket, her small retentive
brain, and thereby knowing so much more about them than they
suspected or would care to think. There were those she would have
liked to betray, to trip up, to bring down with words altered and
fatal; and all through a personal hostility provoked by the
lightest signs, by their accidents of tone and manner, by the
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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 Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: ton, to our equally dear and much lamented friend,
Dr. Estlin of Bristol, will show why we were not
taken into custody.
"21, Cornhill, Boston,
"November 6th, 1850.
"My dear Mr Estlin,
"I trust that in God's good providence this letter
will be handed to you in safety by our good friends,
William and Ellen Craft. They have lived amongst
us about two years, and have proved themselves worthy,
in all respects, of our confidence and regard.
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
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 Contrast by Royall Tyler: esteem. Ten thousand temptations allure us, ten
thousand passions betray us; yet the smallest deviation
from the path of rectitude is followed by the contempt
and insult of man, and the more remorseless pity of
woman; years of penitence and tears cannot wash
away the stain, nor a life of virtue obliterate its
remembrance. Reputation is the life of woman; yet
courage to protect it is masculine and disgusting;
and the only safe asylum a woman of delicacy can
find is in the arms of a man of honour. How
naturally, then, should we love the brave and the
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