| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Poor and Proud by Oliver Optic: sitting-room, where the portraits hung. Those roguish eyes of the
lady, who somewhat resembled her mother, were fixed on her again.
She was sure that her mother did not look like that picture then,
but she was equally sure that she had, some time or other cast
just such a glance at her. The expression of the lady found
something like its counterpart in her memory. Now, her mother
was sick and sad; she seldom smiled. But some time she must have
been a young girl, and then she must have looked like that
portrait. She felt just like asking Mrs. Gordon if that was her
portrait, but she did not dare to do such a thing. While she was
attentively watching the roguish lady's face, her kind friend
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: spread on the table, and looked unhappy. He said, 'The
coast of West Australia is near, but I mean to proceed
to our destination. It is the hurricane month too; but
we will just keep her head for Bankok, and fight the fire.
No more putting back anywhere, if we all get roasted.
We will try first to stifle this 'ere damned combustion by
want of air.'
"We tried. We battened down everything, and still
she smoked. The smoke kept coming out through im-
perceptible crevices; it forced itself through bulkheads
and covers; it oozed here and there and everywhere in
Youth |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tom Grogan by F. Hopkinson Smith: truth. Ye'd be a ridin' delegate if ye could; but there's one
thing ye'll niver be, an' that's a workin' delegate, as long as ye
kin find fools to pay ye wages fer bummin' round day 'n' night.
If I had me way, ye would walk, but it would be on yer uppers, wid
yer bare feet to the road."
Crimmins again attempted to speak, but she raised her arm
threateningly: "Now, if it's walkin' ye are, ye can begin right
away. Let me see ye earn yer wages down that garden an' into the
road. Come, lively now, before I disgrace meself a-layin' hands
on the likes of ye!"
V
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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 When a Man Marries by Mary Roberts Rinehart: sleep--no one had. But he came over while the lottery was going
on and stood over me and demanded unpleasantly, in a whisper,
that I stop masquerading as another man's wife and generally
making a fool of myself--which is the way he put it. And I knew
in my heart that he was right, and I hated him for it.
"Why don't you go and tell him--them?" I asked nastily. No one
was paying any attention to us. "Tell them that, to be obliging,
I have nearly drowned in a sea of lies; tell them that I am not
only not married, but that I never intend to marry; tell them
that we are a lot of idiots with nothing better to do than to
trifle with strangers within our gates, people who build--I mean,
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