| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: CHAPTER VII
I
HE solemnly finished the last copy of the American Magazine, while his wife
sighed, laid away her darning, and looked enviously at the lingerie designs in
a women's magazine. The room was very still.
It was a room which observed the best Floral Heights standards. The gray walls
were divided into artificial paneling by strips of white-enameled pine. From
the Babbitts' former house had come two much-carved rocking-chairs, but the
other chairs were new, very deep and restful, upholstered in blue and
gold-striped velvet. A blue velvet davenport faced the fireplace, and behind
it was a cherrywood table and a tall piano-lamp with a shade of golden silk.
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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 Europeans by Henry James: Shakespeare to French and German, Polish and Hungarian audiences.
While this periodical recital was going on, Gertrude lived
in a fantastic world; she seemed to herself to be reading
a romance that came out in daily numbers. She had known nothing
so delightful since the perusal of "Nicholas Nickleby."
One afternoon she went to see her cousin, Mrs. Acton,
Robert's mother, who was a great invalid, never leaving the house.
She came back alone, on foot, across the fields--this being
a short way which they often used. Felix had gone to Boston
with her father, who desired to take the young man to call upon
some of his friends, old gentlemen who remembered his mother--
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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 The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Then shall they know."
The little boy did not understand it all, he only knew
that he was comfortable, and had warm clothing, and
all he required to eat, and that he would be a great
man when he learned to fight with a real sword, and
had grown large enough to wield one. He also knew
that he hated Englishmen, but why, he did not know.
Way back in the uttermost recesses of his little, child-
ish head he seemed to remember a time when his life
and surroundings had been very different; when, in-
stead of this old woman, there had been many people
The Outlaw of Torn |
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 Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: "As for me, madam," replied the gentleman, coldly, "I have need of nothing."
"But how do you look upon the fate, sir, which awaits you?"
"As I am in the habit of doing."
"At least," said Aouda, "want should not overtake a man like you.
Your friends--"
"I have no friends, madam."
"Your relatives--"
"I have no longer any relatives."
"I pity you, then, Mr. Fogg, for solitude is a sad thing,
with no heart to which to confide your griefs. They say,
though, that misery itself, shared by two sympathetic souls,
Around the World in 80 Days |
