| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: and beating me in the face with the other, hissing and chuckling
and letting out a flood of abuse.
`So this is what she's up to when I'm away, is it?
Where is she, you nasty whelp, where is she? Under the bed,
are you, hussy? I know your tricks! Wait till I get at you!
I'll fix this rat you've got in here. He's caught, all right!'
So long as Cutter had me by the throat, there was no chance for me at all.
I got hold of his thumb and bent it back, until he let go with a yell.
In a bound, I was on my feet, and easily sent him sprawling to the floor.
Then I made a dive for the open window, struck the wire screen,
knocked it out, and tumbled after it into the yard.
My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: tiny sip of cold tea.
"That's about as much as a fly would eat," said Dorothy, who was
making a good meal herself. "But I know some people in Oz who eat
nothing at all."
"Who are they?" inquired the shaggy man.
"One is a scarecrow who's stuffed with straw, and the other a woodman
made out of tin. They haven't any appetites inside of 'em, you see;
so they never eat anything at all."
"Are they alive?" asked Button-Bright.
"Oh yes," replied Dorothy; "and they're very clever and very nice,
too. If we get to Oz I'll introduce them to you."
The Road to Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Enoch Arden, &c. by Alfred Tennyson: Long lines of cliff breaking have left a chasm;
And in the chasm are foam and yellow sands;
Beyond, red roofs about a narrow wharf
In cluster; then a moulder'd church; and higher
A long street climbs to one tall-tower'd mill;
And high in heaven behind it a gray down
With Danish barrows; and a hazelwood,
By autumn nutters haunted, flourishes
Green in a cuplike hollow of the down.
Here on this beach a hundred years ago,
Three children of three houses, Annie Lee,
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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 Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: they were supposed to know very well what they were about. Taillefer
followed up with three hundred thousand francs at a discount of twenty
per cent, and Martin Falleix with two hundred thousand at fifteen.
Gigonnet saw what was going on. He helped to spread the panic, with a
view to buying up Nucingen's paper himself and making a commission of
two or three per cent out of Werbrust.
"In a corner of the Bourse he came upon poor Matifat, who had three
hundred thousand francs in Nucingen's bank. Matifat, ghastly and
haggard, beheld the terrible Gigonnet, the bill-discounter of his old
quarter, coming up to worry him. He shuddered in spite of himself.
" 'Things are looking bad. There is a crisis on hand. Nucingen is
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