| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: Jessamy tells me you wanted to have some conversa-
tion with me. [Having brought forward two chairs,
they sit.]
JONATHAN
Ma'am!--
JENNY
Sir!--
JONATHAN
Ma'am!--
JENNY
Pray, how do you like the city, Sir?
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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 Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: That afternoon De Vac stood in a window of the
armory looking out upon the beautiful garden which
spread before him to the river wall two hundred yards
away. In the foreground were box-bordered walks,
smooth, sleek lawns, and formal beds of gorgeous flow-
ering plants, while here and there marble statues of
wood nymph and satyr gleamed, sparkling in the bril-
liant sunlight, or, half shaded by an overhanging bush,
took on a semblance of life from the riotous play of
light and shadow as the leaves above them moved to
and fro in the faint breeze. Farther in the distance the
The Outlaw of Torn |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: Yet, when he had climbed for another hour, his thirst became
intolerable again; and when he looked at his bottle, he saw that
there were only five or six drops left in it, and he could not
venture to drink. And as he was hanging the flask to his belt
again, he saw a little dog lying on the rocks, gasping for breath--
just as Hans had seen it on the day of his ascent. And Gluck
stopped and looked at it, and then at the Golden River, not five
hundred yards above him; and he thought of the dwarf's words, that
no one could succeed except in his first attempt; and he tried to
pass the dog, but it whined piteously and Gluck stopped again.
"Poor beastie," said Gluck, "it'll be dead when I come down
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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 De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: his temperament. The dead have come armed out of the grave to
impose on him a mission at once too great and too mean for him. He
is a dreamer, and he is called upon to act. He has the nature of
the poet, and he is asked to grapple with the common complexity of
cause and effect, with life in its practical realisation, of which
he knows nothing, not with life in its ideal essence, of which he
knows so much. He has no conception of what to do, and his folly
is to feign folly. Brutus used madness as a cloak to conceal the
sword of his purpose, the dagger of his will, but the Hamlet
madness is a mere mask for the hiding of weakness. In the making
of fancies and jests he sees a chance of delay. He keeps playing
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