| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain: and the train both behind, 'WAY behind, and done it
easy, too.
But Tom he was huffy, and said me and Jim was a
couple of ignorant blatherskites, and then he says:
"Suppose there's a brown calf and a big brown dog,
and an artist is making a picture of them. What is the
MAIN thing that that artist has got to do? He has got
to paint them so you can tell them apart the minute
you look at them, hain't he? Of course. Well, then,
do you want him to go and paint BOTH of them brown?
Certainly you don't. He paints one of them blue,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: childish tricks! I went to Italy with a thoughtless youth, whom I
crushed when he spoke to me of love, but later, when I herd that he
was compromised on my account (he had committed a forgery to get
money) I rushed to save him. My mother and husband kept me almost
without means; but, this time, I went to the king. Louis XVIII., that
man without a heart, was touched; he gave me a hundred thousand francs
from his privy purse. The Marquis d'Esgrignon--you must have seen him
in society for he ended by making a rich marriage--was saved from the
abyss into which he had plunged for my sake. That adventure, caused by
my own folly, led me to reflect. I saw that I myself was the first
victim of my vengeance. My mother, who knew I was too proud, too
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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 Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: Denver again meditated. "And when you got back--she didn't hear
you? You got in without her knowing it?"
"Yes. I went straight to my work--took it up at the word where
I'd left off--WHY, DENVER, DON'T YOU REMEMBER?" Granice suddenly,
passionately interjected.
"Remember--?"
"Yes; how you found me--when you looked in that morning, between
two and three . . . your usual hour . . .?"
"Yes," the editor nodded.
Granice gave a short laugh. "In my old coat--with my pipe:
looked as if I'd been working all night, didn't I? Well, I
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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 Just Folks by Edgar A. Guest: I take my little Bible down
And read its pages o'er,
And when I part from it I find
I'm stronger than before.
Success
I hold no dream of fortune vast,
Nor seek undying fame.
I do not ask when life is past
That many know my name.
I may not own the skill to rise
To glory's topmost height,
Just Folks |
