| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: mixture of things in his talk that were rather good with things
that were rather poor. But one could not count with any
confidence upon Capes.
The five men students were a mixed company. There was a very
white-faced youngster of eighteen who brushed back his hair
exactly in Russell's manner, and was disposed to be uncomfortably
silent when he was near her, and to whom she felt it was only
Christian kindness to be consistently pleasant; and a lax young
man of five-and-twenty in navy blue, who mingled Marx and Bebel
with the more orthodox gods of the biological pantheon. There
was a short, red-faced, resolute youth who inherited an
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: evidently wishing to show her connections and knowledge of what went
on in society.
"The fact of the matter is," said she significantly, and also in a
half whisper, "everyone knows Count Cyril's reputation.... He has lost
count of his children, but this Pierre was his favorite."
"How handsome the old man still was only a year ago!" remarked the
countess. "I have never seen a handsomer man."
"He is very much altered now," said Anna Mikhaylovna. "Well, as I
was saying, Prince Vasili is the next heir through his wife, but the
count is very fond of Pierre, looked after his education, and wrote to
the Emperor about him; so that in the case of his death- and he is
War and Peace |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: Spoiled apparently; but it was not so; they were better than raw ones.
Fire is beautiful; some day it will be useful, I think.
FRIDAY.--I saw him again, for a moment, last Monday at nightfall,
but only for a moment. I was hoping he would praise me for trying
to improve the estate, for I had meant well and had worked hard.
But he was not pleased, and turned away and left me. He was also
displeased on another account: I tried once more to persuade him
to stop going over the Falls. That was because the fire had revealed
to me a new passion--quite new, and distinctly different from love,
grief, and those others which I had already discovered--FEAR. And it
is horrible!--I wish I had never discovered it; it gives me dark moments,
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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 Key by L. Frank Baum: Coming towards him at his right hand was an immense bird, whose body
seemed almost as big as that of a horse. Its wide-open, curving beak
was set with rows of pointed teeth, and the talons held against its
breast and turned threateningly outward were more powerful and
dreadful than a tiger's claws.
While, fascinated and horrified, he watched the approach of this
feathered monster, a scream sounded just behind him and the next
instant the stroke of a mighty wing sent him whirling over and over
through the air.
He soon came to a stop, however, and saw that another of the monsters
had come upon him from the rear and was now, with its mate, circling
The Master Key |
