| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: length she emerged safely from the shop she was almost dizzy with
the intensity of her relief. The mere touch of the packet
thrilled her tired nerves with the delicious promise of a night
of sleep, and in the reaction from her momentary fear she felt as
if the first fumes of drowsiness were already stealing over her.
In her confusion she stumbled against a man who was hurrying down
the last steps of the elevated station. He drew back, and she
heard her name uttered with surprise. It was Rosedale,
fur-coated, glossy and prosperous--but why did she seem to see
him so far off, and as if through a mist of splintered crystals?
Before she could account for the phenomenon she found herself
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: nor'wester, fresh from poking her revolver under Ericson's nose,
protected by her gang of huge Polynesian sailors, and settling down
in Berande like any shipwrecked sailor. It was all on a par with
her Baden-Powell and the long 38 Colt's.
At any rate, she did not look the part. And that was what he could
not forgive. Had she been short-haired, heavy-jawed, large-
muscled, hard-bitten, and utterly unlovely in every way, all would
have been well. Instead of which she was hopelessly and
deliciously feminine. Her hair worried him, it was so generously
beautiful. And she was so slenderly and prettily the woman--the
girl, rather--that it cut him like a knife to see her, with quick,
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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 Hellenica by Xenophon: 230. In the defence of his father's career, which the younger
Alcibiades, the defendant in this case (B.C. 397 probably) has
occasion to make, he reminds the court, that under the Thirty,
others were banished from Athens, but his father was driven out of
the civilised world of Hellas itself, and finally murdered. See
Plutarch, "Alcibiades," ad fin.
"I ask then is the man who tenders such advice in the full light of
day justly to be regarded as a traitor, and not as a benefactor?
Surely Critias, the peacemaker, the man who hinders the creation of
many enemies, whose counsels tend to the acquistion of yet more
friends,[17] cannot be accused of strengthening the hands of the
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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 Faith of Men by Jack London: As he lost control, his jaws spasmodically wrenched apart, and deep
throaty vibrations issued forth, too low in the register of sound
for human ear to catch. And then, nostrils distended, eyes
dilated, hair bristling in helpless rage, arose the long wolf howl.
It came with a slurring rush upwards, swelling to a great heart-
breaking burst of sound, and dying away in sadly cadenced woe--then
the next rush upward, octave upon octave; the bursting heart; and
the infinite sorrow and misery, fainting, fading, falling, and
dying slowly away.
It was fit for hell. And Leclere, with fiendish ken, seemed to
divine each particular nerve and heartstring, and with long wails
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