| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: trials, temptations, were his. His words passed far over the
furnace-tender's grasp, toned to suit another class of culture;
they sounded in his ears a very pleasant song in an unknown
tongue. He meant to cure this world-cancer with a steady eye
that had never glared with hunger, and a hand that neither
poverty nor strychnine-whiskey had taught to shake. In this
morbid, distorted heart of the Welsh puddler he had failed.
Eighteen centuries ago, the Master of this man tried reform in
the streets of a city as crowded and vile as this, and did not
fail. His disciple, showing Him to-night to cultured hearers,
showing the clearness of the God-power acting through Him,
Life in the Iron-Mills |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: planet.
He had read a good deal at odd times, and had seen a great deal
of men. His private morals were unstained, he was equable and
amiable, had strong good sense, and never got beyond his depth.
He had travelled in Europe and brought home many statistics,
some new thoughts, and a few good pictures selected by his
friends. He spent his money liberally for the things needful to
his position, owned a yacht, bred trotting-horses, and had
founded a theological school. He submitted to these and other
social observances from a vague sense of duty as an American
citizen; his real interest lay in business and in politics.
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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 Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: pale eyes upon De Marsay.
The girl of the golden eyes expired in a bath of blood. The great
illumination of candles, a delicate perfume which was perceptible, a
certain disorder, in which the eye of a man accustomed to amorous
adventures could not but discern the madness which is common to all
the passions, revealed how cunningly the Marquise had interrogated the
guilty one. The white room, where the blood showed so well, betrayed a
long struggle. The prints of Paquita's hands were on the cushions.
Here she had clung to her life, here she had defended herself, here
she had been struck. Long strips of the tapestry had been torn down by
her bleeding hands, which, without a doubt, had struggled long.
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
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 Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: Her eyes woo'd still, his eyes disdain'd the wooing:
And all this dumb play had his acts made plain
With tears, which, chorus-like, her eyes did rain.
Full gently now she takes him by the hand, 361
A lily prison'd in a gaol of snow,
Or ivory in an alabaster band;
So white a friend engirts so white a foe: 364
This beauteous combat, wilful and unwilling,
Show'd like two silver doves that sit a-billing.
Once more the engine of her thoughts began:
'O fairest mover on this mortal round, 368
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