| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: promise.
She was now twenty-eight,--the age at which the beauties of a French
woman are in their glory. Painters particularly admired the lustre of
her white shoulders, tinted with olive tones about the nape of the
neck, and wonderfully firm and polished, so that the light shimmered
over them as it does on watered silk. When she turned her head, superb
folds formed about her neck, the admiration of sculptors. She carried
on this triumphant neck the small head of a Roman empress, the
delicate, round, and self-willed head of Pompeia, with features of
elegant correctness, and the smooth forehead of a woman who drives all
care away and all reflection, who yields easily, but is capable of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: be hard to get. Often he felt her deep, penetrating gaze upon
him; and, though this in no wise embarrassed him--for he had no
shameful secrets of past or present--it showed him how useless it
would be to try to conceal anything from her. Naturally, on first
impulse, he wanted to hide his interest in the daughter; but he
resolved to be absolutely frank and true, and through that win or
lose. Moreover, if Mrs. Belding asked him any questions about his
home, his family, his connections, he would not avoid direct and
truthful answers.
Toward evening Gale heard the tramp of horses and Belding's hearty
voice. Presently the rancher strode in upon Gale, shaking the
Desert Gold |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: me what true love may be--what it should be, and how far from
real love was my selfish and jealous passion for you.
"Now I am different. Now could I love as Dejah Thoris loves,
and so my only happiness can be to know that you and she are once
more united, for in her alone can you find true happiness.
"But I am unhappy because of the wickedness that I have wrought.
I have many sins to expiate, and though I be deathless, life is
all too short for the atonement.
The Warlord of Mars |
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 Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: and plaster which are common in Paris houses.
Our room, a little over seven feet high, was hung with a vile cheap
paper sprigged with blue. The floor was painted, and knew nothing of
the polish given by the /frotteur's/ brush. By our beds there was only
a scrap of thin carpet. The chimney opened immediately to the roof,
and smoked so abominably that we were obliged to provide a stove at
our own expense. Our beds were mere painted wooden cribs like those in
schools; on the chimney shelf there were but two brass candlesticks,
with or without tallow candles in them, and our two pipes with some
tobacco in a pouch or strewn abroad, also the little piles of cigar-
ash left there by our visitors or ourselves.
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