| 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: could meet Madame de Vandenesse in the evening. He was not able to
leave the party or the play until long after midnight, having obtained
nothing better than a few tender sentences, long awaited, said in a
doorway, or hastily as he put her into her carriage. It frequently
happened that Marie, who by this time had launched him into the great
world, procured for him invitations to dinner in certain houses where
she went herself. All this seemed the simplest life in the world to
her. Raoul moved by pride and led on by his passion never told her of
his labors. He obeyed the will of this innocent sovereign, followed in
her train, followed, also, the parliamentary debates, edited and wrote
for his newspaper, and put upon the stage two plays, the money for
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: tree. But a close observer would have seen, as Alfred did, that there was a
certain alertness in that rigid and motionless figure. Wetzel's eyes were
fixed on the western end of the island. Almost involuntarily Alfred's eyes
sought the same direction. The western end of the island ran out into a long
low point covered with briars, rushes and saw-grass. As Alfred directed his
gaze along the water line of this point he distinctly saw a dark form flit
from one bush to another. He was positive he had not been mistaken. He got up
slowly and unconcernedly, and strolled over to Wetzel.
"Wetzel, I saw an object just now," he said in a low tone. "It was moving
behind those bushes at the head of the island. I am not sure whether it was an
animal or an Indian."
Betty Zane |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: protection of the traders with the Indian tribes entirely out of
the question.
"This great trade, carried on by caravans to Santa Fe, annually
loads one hundred wagons with merchandise, which is bartered in
the northern provinces or Mexico for cash and for beaver furs.
The numerous articles excluded as contraband, and the exorbitant
duties laid upon all those that are admitted by the Mexican
government, present so many obstacles to commerce, that I am well
persuaded, that if a post, such as is here suggested, should be
established on the Arkansas, it would become the place of
deposit, not only for the present trade, but for one infinitely
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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 Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: deep ravage? The extraordinary thing we speak of was the sudden
rush of the result of this question. The sight that had just met
his eyes named to him, as in letters of quick flame, something he
had utterly, insanely missed, and what he had missed made these
things a train of fire, made them mark themselves in an anguish of
inward throbs. He had seen OUTSIDE of his life, not learned it
within, the way a woman was mourned when she had been loved for
herself: such was the force of his conviction of the meaning of
the stranger's face, which still flared for him as a smoky torch.
It hadn't come to him, the knowledge, on the wings of experience;
it had brushed him, jostled him, upset him, with the disrespect of
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