| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs: his friend.
"By jove!" he exclaimed. "Why it's Virginia Maxon and
the professor, her father. Now where do you suppose
they're going?"
"I don't know--now," replied the first speaker,
Townsend J. Harper, Jr., in a half whisper,
"but I'll bet you a new car that I find out."
A week later, with failing health and shattered nerves,
Professor Maxon sailed with his daughter for a long
ocean voyage, which he hoped would aid him in rapid
recuperation, and permit him to forget the nightmare memory
The Monster Men |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: grip of things.
Church bells started ringing through the windy air, now sounding as though
from very far away, then again as though all the churches in the town had
been suddenly transplanted into their street. They stirred something in
him, those bells, something vague and tender. Just about that time Anna
would call him from the hall. "Andreas, come and have your coat brushed.
I'm ready." Then off they would go, she hanging on his arm, and looking up
at him. She certainly was a little thing. He remembered once saying when
they were engaged, "Just as high as my heart," and she had jumped on to a
stool and pulled his head down, laughing. A kid in those days, younger
than her children in nature, brighter, more "go" and "spirit" in her. 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 The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: his old maid sister who lived in the back parts of the house,
a quiet, plain, poor, hum-drum couple it would seem - but
pathetic too, as the last of that stirring and brave house -
and, to the country folk, faintly terrible from some deformed
traditions.'
'Yes,' said Mr. Thomson. Henry Graeme Durie, the last lord,
died in 1820; his sister, the Honourable Miss Katherine
Durie, in '27; so much I know; and by what I have been going
over the last few days, they were what you say, decent, quiet
people and not rich. To say truth, it was a letter of my
lord's that put me on the search for the packet we are going
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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 All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare: title; which is within a very little of nothing.
PAROLLES.
Away! thou art a knave.
CLOWN.
You should have said, sir, before a knave thou art a knave;
that is before me thou art a knave: this had been truth, sir.
PAROLLES.
Go to, thou art a witty fool; I have found thee.
CLOWN.
Did you find me in yourself, sir? or were you taught to find me?
The search, sir, was profitable; and much fool may you find in
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