| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: advantages of both, such as no country in the world has ever seen.
We shall have, I believe and trust, ere another generation has
past, model lodging-houses springing up, not in the heart of the
town, but on the hills around it; and those will be--economy, as
well as science and good government, will compel them to be--not
ill-built rows of undrained cottages, each rented for awhile, and
then left to run into squalidity and disrepair, but huge blocks of
building, each with its common eating-house, bar, baths,
washhouses, reading-room, common conveniences of every kind,
where, in free and pure country air, the workman will enjoy
comforts which our own grandfathers could not command, and at a
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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 Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: "Old fellow, good-by," came the answer.
They took one last, long look into each others' eyes. Jim's glance betrayed
his fear--he would never see his brother again. The light in Joe's eyes was
the old steely flash, the indomitable spirit--while there was life there was
hope.
"Let the Shawnee chief paint his prisoner black," commanded Wingenund.
When the missionary left the lodge with the runner, Whispering Winds had
smiled, for she had saved him whom she loved to hear speak; but the dread
command that followed paled her cheek. Black paint meant hideous death. She
saw this man so like the white father. Her piteous gaze tried to turn from
that white face; but the cold, steely eyes fascinated her.
The Spirit of the Border |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: windows, seemed rather calculated to afford the defenders the
means of employing missile weapons, than for admitting air or
light to the apartments within. A small battlement projected
over the walls on every side, and afforded farther advantage of
defence by its niched parapet, within which arose a steep roof,
flagged with grey stones. A single turret at one angle, defended
by a door studded with huge iron nails, rose above the
battlement, and gave access to the roof from within, by the
spiral staircase which it enclosed. It seemed to the party that
their motions were watched by some one concealed within this
turret; and they were confirmed in their belief when, through a
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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 The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: since the tale concluded, had sat as in a dream. There was
something very daunting in his look; something to my eyes not
rightly human; the face, lean, and dark, and aged, the mouth
painful, the teeth disclosed in a perpetual rictus; the eyeball
swimming clear of the lids upon a field of blood-shot white. I
could not behold him myself without a jarring irritation, such as,
I believe, is too frequently the uppermost feeling on the sickness
of those dear to us. Others, I could not but remark. were scarce
able to support his neighbourhood - Sir William eviting to be near
him, Mountain dodging his eye, and, when he met it, blenching and
halting in his story. At this appeal, however, my lord appeared to
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