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: her to know that this was the person to whom her husband's last
known thought had been directed.
Parvis, civilly, but without vain preamble,--in the manner of a
man who has his watch in his hand,--had set forth the object of
his visit. He had "run over" to England on business, and finding
himself in the neighborhood of Dorchester, had not wished to
leave it without paying his respects to Mrs. Boyne; without
asking her, if the occasion offered, what she meant to do about
Bob Elwell's family.
The words touched the spring of some obscure dread in Mary's
bosom. Did her visitor, after all, know what Boyne had meant by
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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 Awakening & Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin: "What's it all about?" wondered a big black bird perched in
the top of the tallest tree. He was an old solitary and a wise
one, yet he was not wise enough to guess what it was all about.
So all day long he kept blinking and wondering.
The noise reached far out over the plain and across the hills
and awoke the little babes that were sleeping in their cradles.
The smoke curled up toward the sun and shadowed the plain so that
the stupid birds thought it was going to rain; but the wise one
knew better.
"They are children playing a game," thought he. "I shall know
more about it if I watch long enough."
 Awakening & Selected Short Stories |