| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: season was still a subject of comment among the gossips--and all
the rest of it.
The "Petrel" had been in the harbor but a few days, and on this
evening a dance was given at the hotel in honor of her arrival.
It was to be a cotillon, and Nat Ridgeway was going to lead with
Josie Herrick. There had been a coaching party to Tia Juana that
day, and Miss Herrick had returned to the hotel only in time to
dress. By 9:30 she emerged from the process--which had involved
her mother, her younger sister, her maid, and one of the hotel
chambermaids--a dainty, firm-corseted little body, all tulle,
white satin, and high-piled hair. She carried Marechal Niel
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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 Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: her nearest friends.
Among these many causes of distress, the negligence and disorder of
Balthazar's dress, so degrading to a man of his station, was not the
least bitter to a woman accustomed to the exquisite nicety of Flemish
life. At first Josephine endeavored, in concert with Balthazar's
valet, Lemulquinier, to repair the daily devastation of his clothing,
but even that she was soon forced to give up. The very day when
Balthazar, unaware of the substitution, put on new clothes in place of
those that were stained, torn, or full of holes, he made rags of them.
The poor wife, whose perfect happiness had lasted fifteen years,
during which time her jealousy had never once been roused, was
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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 Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: so many thunderclaps of protest from heaven against every kind and type of
self-merit. Underscore these words, for they are full of comfort for sore
consciences.
How may we obtain remission of our sins? Paul answers: "The man who is
named Jesus Christ and the Son of God gave himself for our sins." The heavy
artillery of these words explodes papacy, works, merits, superstitions. For if
our sins could be removed by our own efforts, what need was there for the Son
of God to be given for them? Since Christ was given for our sins it stands to
reason that they cannot be put away by our own efforts.
This sentence also defines our sins as great, so great, in fact, that the
whole world could not make amends for a single sin. The greatness of 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 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: but RUFF'S GUIDE and BAILEY'S MAGAZINE, he examined the book-
shelves himself, and finally came across a handsomely-bound edition
of the PHARMACOPOEIA, and a copy of Erskine's TOXICOLOGY, edited by
Sir Mathew Reid, the President of the Royal College of Physicians,
and one of the oldest members of the Buckingham, having been
elected in mistake for somebody else; a CONTRETEMPS that so enraged
the Committee, that when the real man came up they black-balled him
unanimously. Lord Arthur was a good deal puzzled at the technical
terms used in both books, and had begun to regret that he had not
paid more attention to his classics at Oxford, when in the second
volume of Erskine, he found a very interesting and complete account
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