| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tom Grogan by F. Hopkinson Smith: delegates who came from New York to keep up their spirits. The
brewery employed a larger number of men than any other concern in
Rockville, so trouble with its employees meant serious trouble for
half the village if Schwartz defied the Union and selected a
non-union woman to do the work.
They knew, too, something of the indomitable pluck and endurance
of Tom Grogan. If she were lowest on the bids, she would fight
for the contract, they felt sure, if it took her last dollar.
McGaw was a fool, they said, to bid so high; he might have known
she would cut his throat, and bring them no end of trouble.
Having nursed their resentment, and needing a common object for
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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 Chouans by Honore de Balzac: Montauran felt a horrible necessity to vent his rage. His bitter
sarcasm, the ferocity, even the treachery of this military execution,
done without his orders, but which he now accepted, satisfied in some
degree the craving of his heart. In his fury he would fain have
annihilated France. The dead Blues, the living officers, all innocent
of the crime for which he demanded vengeance, were to him the cards by
which a gambler cheats his despair.
"I would rather perish than conquer as you are conquering," said
Gerard. Then, seeing the naked and bloody corpses of his men, he cried
out, "Murdered basely, in cold blood!"
"That was how you murdered Louis XVI., monsieur," said the marquis.
The Chouans |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: me drop straight down on the stone slab, as if suddenly to rest.
"Does my uncle think what YOU think?"
I markedly rested. "How do you know what I think?"
"Ah, well, of course I don't; for it strikes me you never tell me.
But I mean does HE know?"
"Know what, Miles?"
"Why, the way I'm going on."
I perceived quickly enough that I could make, to this inquiry,
no answer that would not involve something of a sacrifice
of my employer. Yet it appeared to me that we were all,
at Bly, sufficiently sacrificed to make that venial.
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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 Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: the necklace of the year. She was happy, eager, interested;
there were lessons to be learned and honor to be won; delightful
books to read; new pieces to be practiced for the Sunday-school
choir; pleasant Saturday afternoons at the manse with Mrs. Allan;
and then, almost before Anne realized it, spring had come again
to Green Gables and all the world was abloom once more.
Studies palled just a wee bit then; the Queen's class, left
behind in school while the others scattered to green lanes and
leafy wood cuts and meadow byways, looked wistfully out of the
windows and discovered that Latin verbs and French exercises had
somehow lost the tang and zest they had possessed in the crisp
Anne of Green Gables |
