| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: You had an old and lofty reputation for honesty, and naturally you
were proud of it--it was your treasure of treasures, the very apple
of your eye. As soon as I found out that you carefully and
vigilantly kept yourselves and your children OUT OF TEMPTATION, I
knew how to proceed. Why, you simple creatures, the weakest of all
weak things is a virtue which has not been tested in the fire. I
laid a plan, and gathered a list of names. My project was to
corrupt Hadleyburg the Incorruptible. My idea was to make liars and
thieves of nearly half a hundred smirchless men and women who had
never in their lives uttered a lie or stolen a penny. I was afraid
of Goodson. He was neither born nor reared in Hadleyburg. I was
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Jungle Tales of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: had been but barely able to stave off starvation;
but such times were infrequent.
There once had been a period of sickness among the
grass-eaters which had left the plains almost bare of game
for several years, and again the great cats had increased
so rapidly and so overrun the country that their prey,
which was also Tarzan's, had been frightened off for a
considerable time.
But for the most part Tarzan had fed well always.
Today, though, he had gone empty, one misfortune following
another as rapidly as he raised new quarry, so that now,
The Jungle Tales of Tarzan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: distant hill, or along the dusky road.
Another of his sources of fearful pleasure was to pass long
winter evenings with the old Dutch wives, as they sat spinning by
the fire, with a row of apples roasting and spluttering along the
hearth, and listen to their marvellous tales of ghosts and
goblins, and haunted fields, and haunted brooks, and haunted
bridges, and haunted houses, and particularly of the headless
horseman, or Galloping Hessian of the Hollow, as they sometimes
called him. He would delight them equally by his anecdotes of
witchcraft, and of the direful omens and portentous sights and
sounds in the air, which prevailed in the earlier times of
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
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 Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: forty-two cents with me that was due him for them last lobsters he
brought in."
"You can leave it with me," suggested the little old mother,
who was already stepping about among her pots and pans in the
pantry, and preparing to make the chowder.
I became possessed of a sudden unwonted curiosity in regard to
William, and felt that half the pleasure of my visit would be lost
if I could not make his interesting acquaintance.
IX
William
MRS. TODD HAD taken the onion out of her basket and laid it down
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