| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: and she is shy with them. She is afraid of beginning a good work
with them, because, if she does, she will be forced to carry it
out; and it cannot be cold, dry, perfunctory, official: it must
be hearty, living, loving, personal. She must make them her
friends; and perhaps she is afraid of doing that, for fear they
should take liberties, as it is called--which they very probably
will do, unless she keeps up a very high standard of self-
restraint and earnestness in her own life--and that involves a
great deal of trouble, and so she is tempted, when she wishes to
do good, to fall back on the poor people in the cottages outside,
who, as she fancies, know nothing about her, and will never find
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: 'em better, and has got no more idea of business
outside of that than a rabbit. We all went to the
livery stable and overhauled that balloon. It
was an awful job, too. But they wasn't a rip in
her, and the parachute was jest as good as new.
"There's no reason why we can't give a show of
our own," says Doctor Kirby, "with you boys and
Danny and me and that balloon. What we want is a
lot with a high board fence around it, like a baseball
grounds, and the chance to tap a gas main." He
says he'll be willing to take a chancet on it, even
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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 Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: extraordinary interest; Challoner, alleging some affair, had
long ago withdrawn from the detested neighbourhood of the
enchantress.
'At that moment,' Mrs. Desborough was saying, 'Mr Gladstone
detected the features of his cowardly assailant. A cry rose
to his lips: a cry of mingled triumph . . .'
'That is Mr. Somerset!' interrupted the spirited old lady, in
the highest note of her register. 'Mr. Somerset, what have
you done with my house-property?'
'Madam,' said the Prince, 'let it be mine to give the
explanation; and in the meanwhile, welcome your daughter.'
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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 Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: eighteenth cousin of the lady's, bore the charge of all, and kept a trim
house and a good country table. Kirstie was a woman in a thousand,
clean, capable, notable; once a moorland Helen, and still comely as a
blood horse and healthy as the hill wind. High in flesh and voice and
colour, she ran the house with her whole intemperate soul, in a bustle,
not without buffets. Scarce more pious than decency in those days
required, she was the cause of many an anxious thought and many a
tearful prayer to Mrs. Weir. Housekeeper and mistress renewed the parts
of Martha and Mary; and though with a pricking conscience, Mary reposed
on Martha's strength as on a rock. Even Lord Hermiston held Kirstie in
a particular regard. There were few with whom he unbent so gladly, few
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