| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: Juanita! Don't you think we ought to make Carrie tell us
about the officers she met in Washington?"
They rustled and stared. Carol looked at them. Their
curiosity seemed natural and unimportant.
"Oh yes, yes indeed, have to do that some day," she yawned.
She no longer took Aunt Bessie Smail seriously enough to
struggle for independence. She saw that Aunt Bessie did not
mean to intrude; that she wanted to do things for all the
Kennicotts. Thus Carol hit upon the tragedy of old age, which
is not that it is less vigorous than youth, but that it is not
needed by youth; that its love and prosy sageness, so
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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 Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: foam-flecked shoulders, carried her beyond the control of the
steersman, and in a moment dropped her, with a great concussion, on
the sand, and began to break over her half-mast high, and roll her
to and fro. Another great wave followed, raised her again, and
carried her yet farther in; and then a third succeeded, and left
her far inshore of the more dangerous breakers, wedged upon a bank.
"Now, boys," cried Lawless, "the saints have had a care of us,
indeed. The tide ebbs; let us but sit down and drink a cup of
wine, and before half an hour ye may all march me ashore as safe as
on a bridge."
A barrel was broached, and, sitting in what shelter they could find
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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 The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: in her recoiling movement. She felt her arm being seized swiftly.
"Don't you see that if it is to do any good, that if they are not
to be delivered to mere slaughter, it must be done while all is
dark ashore, before an armed mob in boats comes clamouring
alongside? Yes. Before the night is an hour older, so that I may
be hammering at Belarab's gate while all the Settlement is still
asleep."
Mrs. Travers didn't dream of protesting. For the moment she was
unable to speak. This man was very fierce and just as suddenly as
it had been gripped (making her think incongruously in the midst
of her agitation that there would be certainly a bruise there in
The Rescue |
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 Riverman by Stewart Edward White: "You must like camp life."
"I do not like it at all," negatived Newmark emphatically, "but the
drive interested me. It interested me so much that I've come back
to talk to you about it."
"Fire ahead," acquiesced Orde.
"I'm going to ask you a few questions about yourself, and you can
answer them or not, just as you please."
"Oh, I'm not bashful about my career," laughed Orde.
"How old are you?" inquired Newmark abruptly.
"Thirty."
"How long have you been doing that sort of thing--driving, I mean?"
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