| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: a faint, though awful, glare over the sea, until the light was
suddenly extinguished, as the hull sank.
The dawn was in the sky by this time, and as it broadened they
could see faint specks here and there, where others, like
themselves, clung to drifting spars. Mrs. Lawrie shuddered with
cold and the reaction from an excitement which had been far more
powerful than she knew at the time.
Her preserver then took off his coat, wrapped it around her, and
produced a pocket-flask, saying; "this will support us the longest;
it is all I could find, or bring with me."
She sat, leaning against his shoulder, though partly turned away
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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 Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: saying; and then, "Some'n pretty well orf--judge by the
bicycles." Then the imaginary spectators would fall a-talking of
the fashionableness of bicycling,--how judges And stockbrokers
and actresses and, in fact, all the best people rode, and how
that it was often the fancy of such great folk to shun the big
hotels, the adulation of urban crowds, and seek, incognito, the
cosy quaintnesses of village life. Then, maybe, they would think
of a certain nameless air of distinction about the lady who had
stepped across the doorway, and about the handsome,
flaxen-moustached, blue-eyed Cavalier who had followed her in,
and they would look one to another. "Tell you what it is," one 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 End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: towered without advancing. The little dog barked un-
ceasingly, till a flick of Mr. Van Wyk's handkerchief
made him spring aside into silence. Captain Whalley,
opening the matter, was met by a punctiliously polite
but determined opposition.
They carried on their discussion standing where they
had come face to face. Mr. Van Wyk observed his
visitor with attention. Then at last, as if forced out of
his reserve--
"I am surprised that you should intercede for such a
confounded fool."
End of the Tether |
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 Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: will get in your noodle, and perhaps you won't be so done up at
the end of a little jaunt like this," he concluded. And to his
conclusion he presently added a postscript: "Why, I know kids
your age can ride day and night for a week on the round-up
without being all in. How old are you, son?"
"Eighteen."
"That's a lie," retorted the ranger, with immediate frankness.
"You're not a day over fifteen, I'll bet."
"I meant to say fifteen," meekly corrected the youth.
"That's another of them. You meant to say eighteen, but you found
I wouldn't swallow it. Now, Master Frank, you want to learn one
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