| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: the best of humor.
We arrived at Oroya late in the afternoon, and departed for
Cerro de Pasco by rail on the following morning.
This ride of sixty-eight miles is unsurpassed in all the
world. Snow-capped peaks, bottomless precipices, huge masses of
boulders that seem ready to crush the train surround you on every
side, and now and then are directly above or beneath you.
Le Mire was profoundly impressed; indeed, I had not supposed
her to possess the sensibility she displayed; and as for me, I was
most grateful to her for having suggested the trip. You who find
yourselves too well-acquainted with the Rockies and the Alps and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling: Africa to a land where naked men sold gold for iron and
beads. There had he bought much gold, and no few
elephants' teeth, and thither by help of the Wise Iron
would Witta go. Witta feared nothing - except to be poor.
"'My father told me," said Witta, "that a great Shoal
runs three days' sail out from that land, and south of the
shoal lies a Forest which grows in the sea. South and east
of the Forest my father came to a place where the men hid
gold in their hair; but all that country, he said, was full of
Devils who lived in trees, and tore folk limb from limb.
How think ye?"
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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 In the Cage by Henry James: There was a word wrong, but she had lost the right one, and much
clearly depended on her finding it again. The girl, therefore,
sufficiently estimating the affluence of customers and the
distraction of Mr. Buckton and the counter-clerk, took the jump and
gave it. "Isn't it Cooper's?"
It was as if she had bodily leaped--cleared the top of the cage and
alighted on her interlocutress. "Cooper's?"--the stare was
heightened by a blush. Yes, she had made Juno blush.
This was all the greater reason for going on. "I mean instead of
Burfield's."
Our young friend fairly pitied her; she had made her in an instant
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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 Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain: witty too, I ain't denying that, -- but all the same it
warn't fair nor brave, all them people pitching on one,
and they so glib and sharp, and him without any gift
of talk to answer back with. But, good land! what
did he want to sass back for? You see, it couldn't do
him no good, and it was just nuts for them. They
HAD him, you know. But that was his way. I reckon
he couldn't help it; he was made so, I judge. He
was a good enough sort of cretur, and hadn't no harm
in him, and was just a genius, as the papers said, which
wasn't his fault. We can't all be sound: we've got to
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