| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: however, by didactic writing; and held that books should teach no
other lesson but what 'real life would teach, were it as vividly
presented.' Again, it was the thing made that took him, the drama
in the book; to the book itself, to any merit of the making, he was
long strangely blind. He would prefer the AGAMEMNON in the prose
of Mr. Buckley, ay, to Keats. But he was his mother's son,
learning to the last. He told me one day that literature was not a
trade; that it was no craft; that the professed author was merely
an amateur with a door-plate. 'Very well,' said I, 'the first time
you get a proof, I will demonstrate that it is as much a trade as
bricklaying, and that you do not know it.' By the very next post,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: that she suffered others to discover. In her complete seclusion, her
sadness, her beauty so passionately obscured, nay, almost blighted,
there was so much to charm, that several young gentlemen fell in love;
but the more sincere the lover, the more timid he became; and besides,
the lady inspired awe, and it was a difficult matter to find enough
courage to speak to her. Finally, if a few of the bolder sort wrote to
her, their letters must have been burned unread. It was Mme.
Willemsens' practice to throw all the letters which she received into
the fire, as if she meant that the time spent in Touraine should be
untroubled by any outside cares even of the slightest. She might have
come to the enchanting retreat to give herself up wholly to the joy of
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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 Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: Bitter waters for Jane Withersteen! Men and women stopped to gaze
at him and the horses. All knew him; all knew the blacks and the
bay. As well as if it had been spoken, Venters read in the faces
of men the intelligence that Jane Withersteen's Arabians had been
known to have been stolen. Venters reined in and halted before
Dyer's residence. It was a low, long, stone structure resembling
Withersteen House. The spacious front yard was green and
luxuriant with grass and flowers; gravel walks led to the huge
porch; a well-trimmed hedge of purple sage separated the yard
from the church grounds; birds sang in the trees; water flowed
musically along the walks; and there were glad, careless shouts
Riders of the Purple Sage |
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 American by Henry James: M. de Bellegarde looked at him from head to foot, and then, in the
most delicate, best-bred voice, "I detest you, personally," he said.
"That's the way I feel to you, but for politeness sake I
don't say it," said Newman. "It's singular I should want
so much to be your brother-in-law, but I can't give it up.
Let me try once more." And he paused a moment.
"You have a secret--you have a skeleton in the closet."
M. de Bellegarde continued to look at him hard, but Newman
could not see whether his eyes betrayed anything; the look
of his eyes was always so strange. Newman paused again,
and then went on. "You and your mother have committed a crime."
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