| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: a neat-minded little man in spite of his energy. The whole
business--so near a capture--was horribly vexatious. Phipps sat
on his bed for some time examining, with equal disgust, a collar
he would have thought incredible for Sunday twenty-four hours
before. Mrs. Milton fell a-musing on the mortality of even big,
fat men with dog-like eyes, and Widgery was unhappy because he
had been so cross to her at the station, and because so far he
did not feel that he had scored over Dangle. Also he was angry
with Dangle. And all four of them, being souls living very much
upon the appearances of things, had a painful, mental middle
distance of Botley derisive and suspicious, and a remoter
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: that now, as in time past, they run about together, in and out of every
word which is uttered, and that this union of them will never cease, and is
not now beginning, but is, as I believe, an everlasting quality of thought
itself, which never grows old. Any young man, when he first tastes these
subtleties, is delighted, and fancies that he has found a treasure of
wisdom; in the first enthusiasm of his joy he leaves no stone, or rather no
thought unturned, now rolling up the many into the one, and kneading them
together, now unfolding and dividing them; he puzzles himself first and
above all, and then he proceeds to puzzle his neighbours, whether they are
older or younger, or of his own age--that makes no difference; neither
father nor mother does he spare; no human being who has ears is safe from
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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 Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: ailanthus below her window, and she knew how early each year the
clump of dicentra strung its bending stalk with hearts of pink.
But of greater interest were the yards beyond. Being for the
most part attached to boarding-houses they were in a state of
chronic untidiness and fluttering, on certain days of the week,
with miscellaneous garments and frayed table-cloths. In spite of
this Mrs. Manstey found much to admire in the long vista which
she commanded. Some of the yards were, indeed, but stony wastes,
with grass in the cracks of the pavement and no shade in spring
save that afforded by the intermittent leafage of the clothes-
lines. These yards Mrs. Manstey disapproved of, but the others,
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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 Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: and try to find some grass for breakfast; so he ambled calmly through
the handsome arch of the doorway, turned the corner of the palace,
wherein all seemed asleep, and came face to face with the Sawhorse.
Jim stopped abruptly, being startled and amazed. The Sawhorse stopped
at the same time and stared at the other with its queer protruding
eyes, which were mere knots in the log that formed its body. The legs
of the Sawhorse were four sticks driving into holes bored in the log;
its tail was a small branch that had been left by accident and its
mouth a place chopped in one end of the body which projected a little
and served as a head. The ends of the wooden legs were shod with
plates of solid gold, and the saddle of the Princess Ozma, which was of
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
