| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: His mother laughed a laugh that seemed to ring through the
city and be echoed and re-echoed by countless other laughs.
"Oh, yes, I will, won't I! Sure!"
"Well, yeh must take me fer a damn fool," said Jimmie,
indignant at his mother for mocking him. "I didn't say we'd make
'er inteh a little tin angel, ner nottin', but deh way it is now
she can queer us! Don' che see?"
"Aye, she'll git tired of deh life atter a while an' den
she'll wanna be a-comin' home, won' she, deh beast! I'll let 'er
in den, won' I?"
"Well, I didn' mean none of dis prod'gal bus'ness anyway,"
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: wreck by the shrouds and the rigging, remained alongside for four
days. During all this time the ship lay rolling in the trough of
the sea, the heavy surges breaking over her, and the spars
heaving and banging to and fro, bruising the half-drowned sailors
that clung to the bowsprit and the stumps of the masts. The
sufferings of these poor fellows were intolerable. They stood to
their waists in water, in imminent peril of being washed off by
every surge. In this position they dared not sleep, lest they
should let go their hold and be swept away. The only dry place on
the wreck was the bowsprit. Here they took turns to be tied on,
for half an hour at a time, and in this way gained short snatches
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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 Iron Puddler by James J. Davis: farmers. To test their skill, each farmer would guess the weight
of a grazing pig. Then they would catch the porker, throw him on
the scales, and find out which farmer had guessed nearest the
mark. Sunday clothes used to be badly soiled in this sport.
But the iron worker does not guess his pigs. He knows exactly
how much pig-iron he put into the boil. His guessing skill comes
into play when with a long paddle and hook he separates six
hundred pounds of sizzling fireworks into three fire balls each
of which will weigh two hundred pounds.
The balls are rolled up into three resting places, one in the
fire-bridge corner, one in the flue-bridge corner, and one in the
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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, Detective by Mark Twain: hurt bad.
"But laws," he says, "it was only just fear that gave
him that last little spurt of strength, and of course it
soon played out and he laid down in the bush, and there
wasn't anybody to help him, and he died."
Then the old man cried and grieved, and said he was a murderer
and the mark of Cain was on him, and he had disgraced
his family and was going to be found out and hung.
But Tom said:
"No, you ain't going to be found out. You DIDN'T kill him.
ONE lick wouldn't kill him. Somebody else done it."
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