| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: saloons, and a few huddled houses, hideous in yellow paint,
and on, and on down a road that seemed endless. A stretch
of cinders, then dust, a rather stiff little hill, a great
length of yellow sand and--the lake! We say, the lake! like
that, with an exclamation point after it, because it wasn't
at all the Lake Michigan that Chicagoans know. This vast
blue glory bore no relation to the sullen, gray, turbid
thing that the city calls the lake. It was all the blues of
which you've ever heard, and every passing cloud gave it a
new shade. Sapphire. No, cobalt. No, that's too cold.
Mediterranean. Turquoise. And the sand in golden contrast.
Fanny Herself |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: indiscreet and officious, which made him a troublesome colleague;
domineering in all his ways, which made him incurably unpopular
with the Kanakas, but yet destitute of real authority, so that his
boys laughed at him and he must carry out his wishes by the means
of bribes. He learned to have a mania for doctoring; and set up
the Kanakas against the remedies of his regular rivals: perhaps (if
anything matter at all in the treatment of such a disease) the
worst thing that he did, and certainly the easiest. The best and
worst of the man appear very plainly in his dealings with Mr.
Chapman's money; he had originally laid it out" [intended to lay it
out] "entirely for the benefit of Catholics, and even so not
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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 Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: it -"
"And what was that remedy?" questioned Mrs. Brewster swiftly.
"Amy1 nitrite." Stone spoke with decision. "I could detect its
presence by the fruity, pleasant odor which always accompanies the
drug's use."
"Ah!" The exclamation slipped from Mrs. Brewster. "Is the drug
administered in water?"
"No, it is inhaled - take care, you have dropped your handkerchief."
Stone pulled himself up short in his speech, and bent over but the
young girl was too quick for him, and stooped first to pick up her
handkerchief.
The Red Seal |
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 Europeans by Henry James: to dispose anomalous draperies over the arms of sofas and the backs
of chairs. The Baroness had brought with her to the New World
a copious provision of the element of costume; and the two
Miss Wentworths, when they came over to see her, were somewhat
bewildered by the obtrusive distribution of her wardrobe.
There were India shawls suspended, curtain-wise, in the parlor door,
and curious fabrics, corresponding to Gertrude's metaphysical
vision of an opera-cloak, tumbled about in the sitting-places.
There were pink silk blinds in the windows, by which the room
was strangely bedimmed; and along the chimney-piece was disposed
a remarkable band of velvet, covered with coarse, dirty-looking lace.
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