| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: high and exceedingly thick, cut off all prospect of their advancing.
"This is pleasant," said he; "but I might try to force our way through
the hedge. The briers would probably prick me severely, and that
would be delightful."
"Try it!" the prince returned, with twinkling eyes.
Nerle sprang from his horse to obey, but at the first contact with the
briers he uttered a howl of pain and held up his hands, which were
bleeding in a dozen places from the wounds of the thorns.
"Ah, that will content you for a time, I trust," said Marvel. "Now
follow me, and we will ride along beside the hedge until we find an
opening. For either it will come to an end or there will prove to be
 The Enchanted Island of Yew |
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 Touchstone by Edith Wharton: The sudden lowering of his emotional pitch brought a proportionate
relief. He told himself that now the worst was over and things
would fall into perspective again. His wife and Flamel had turned
to other topics, and coming out on the veranda, he handed the
cigars to Flamel, saying, cheerfully--and yet he could have sworn
they were the last words he meant to utter!--"Look here, old man,
before you go down to Newport you must come out and spend a few
days with us--mustn't he, Alexa?"
VIII
Glennard had, perhaps unconsciously, counted on the continuance of
this easier mood. He had always taken pride in a certain
|