| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "I'll tell you the truth, Les," she said. "I was worrying. I'm
terribly fond of him. It just came all at once, and I couldn't help
it. And I thought he liked me, too, that way." She stopped and
looked up at him to see if he understood, and he nodded gravely.
"Then to-day, when he came to see Nina, he avoided me. He - I was
waiting in the hall upstairs, and he just said a word or two and
went on down."
"Poor devil!" Leslie said. "You see, he's in an unpleasant
position, to say the least. But here's a thought to go to sleep
on. If you ask me, he's keeping out of your way, not because he
cares too little, but because he cares too much."
The Breaking Point |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: and absolutely himself. He may be a great poet, or a great man of
science; or a young student at a University, or one who watches
sheep upon a moor; or a maker of dramas, like Shakespeare, or a
thinker about God, like Spinoza; or a child who plays in a garden,
or a fisherman who throws his net into the sea. It does not matter
what he is, as long as he realises the perfection of the soul that
is within him. All imitation in morals and in life is wrong.
Through the streets of Jerusalem at the present day crawls one who
is mad and carries a wooden cross on his shoulders. He is a symbol
of the lives that are marred by imitation. Father Damien was
Christlike when he went out to live with the lepers, because in
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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 Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: knife, and for to smite an horse with the handle of a whip, or to
smite an horse with a bridle, or to break one bone with another, or
for to cast milk or any liquor that men may drink upon the earth,
or for to take and slay little children. And the most sin that any
man may do is to piss in their houses that they dwell in, and whoso
that may be found with that sin sikerly they slay him. And of
everych of these sins it behoveth them to be shriven of their
priests, and to pay great sum of silver for their penance. And it
behoveth also, that the place that men have pissed in be hallowed
again, and else dare no man enter therein. And when they have paid
their penance, men make them pass through a fire or through two,
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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 The Vision Splendid by William MacLeod Raine: a superfluous ounce of flesh on him, not rugged but with a look of
strength in the slender figure and the thin face. This young man
somehow inspired confidence.
"Sent in that Colby story to us, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"Rotten story. Not half played up. Report to Jenkins at the City
Hall."
"Now?"
"Now. Think I meant next year?"
The city editor was already lost in the reading of more copy.
Inside of half an hour Jeff was at work on his first assignment.
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