| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: "Let me see it," Lute cried, seizing the paper and devouring the handwriting
with her eyes. She was thrilling with unexpressed love for the mother she had
never seen, and this written speech from the grave seemed to give more
tangibility to her having ever existed, than did the vision of her.
"This IS remarkable," Mrs. Grantly was reiterating. "There was never anything
like it. Think of it, my dear, both your father and mother here with us
tonight."
Lute shivered. The lassitude was gone, and she was her natural self again,
vibrant with the instinctive fear of things unseen. And it was offensive to
her mind that, real or illusion, the presence or the memorized existences of
her father and mother should he touched by these two persons who were
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: now literally from the first case of melancholy on which I lay my
hand. It is a letter from a patient in a French asylum.
"I suffer too much in this hospital, both physically and morally.
Besides the burnings and the sleeplessness (for I no longer sleep
since I am shut up here, and the little rest I get is broken by
bad dreams, and I am waked with a jump by night mares dreadful
visions, lightning, thunder, and the rest), fear, atrocious fear,
presses me down, holds me without respite, never lets me go.
Where is the justice in it all! What have I done to deserve this
excess of severity? Under what form will this fear crush me?
What would I not owe to any one who would rid me of my life! Eat,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: of kindliness, momentarily lighted up his fierce and terrible
countenance.
What words of moment were to have fallen from his lips
were never spoken, as just then a young warrior, evidently
sensing the trend of thought among the older men, leaped
down from the steps of the rostrum, and striking the frail
captive a powerful blow across the face, which felled her to
the floor, placed his foot upon her prostrate form and turning
toward the assembled council broke into peals of horrid,
mirthless laughter.
For an instant I thought Tars Tarkas would strike him
|
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 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the
more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong
character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding
my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand
over his head with a sweet womanly caress.
"You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you
not, dad?" she asked.
"No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom."
"But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's
instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will
be sorry for having acted so harshly."
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
