| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: all that goes on under our eyes, while the gentlemen in court are
arguing with each other."
Eve went home in despair over her useless effort. That evening at
seven o'clock, Doublon came with the notification of imprisonment for
debt. The proceedings had reached the acute stage.
"After this, I can only go out after nightfall," said David.
Eve and Mme. Chardon burst into tears. To be in hiding was for them a
shameful thing. As for Kolb and Marion, they were more alarmed for
David because they had long since made up their minds that there was
no guile in their master's nature; so frightened were they on his
account, that they came upstairs under pretence of asking whether they
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Collection of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: beautiful thing to hide in, if it
had not had so much water in it.
MR. McGREGOR was
quite sure that Peter
was somewhere in the toolshed,
perhaps hidden underneath
a flower-pot. He began
to turn them over carefully,
looking under each.
Presently Peter sneezed--
"Kertyschoo!" Mr. McGregor
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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 Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: "The last door to the right down the hall."
The peddler left the room and Nanette sank down dazed and trembling
on the nearest chair. George found her still pale, but he seemed
to think it quite natural that she should have been overcome by the
recollection of the terrible death of her mistress. He gave the
old man a most cordial invitation to return during the next few days.
The cook brought the peddler a cup of steaming tea, and purchased
several trifles from him, before he left the house.
When the old man had reached a lonely spot on the road, about half
way between the hunting castle and the city, he halted, set down
his pack, divested himself of his beard and his wig and washed 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 Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: kerchiefed Houris calling to them from the skies, as representing the
average feelings of a generation of sober and self-restraining men, who
showed themselves actuated by far higher motives.
Another answer, and one very popular now, is that the Mussulmans were
strong, because they believed what they said; and the Greeks weak,
because they did not believe what they said. From this notion I shall
appeal to another doctrine of the very same men who put it forth, and
ask them, Can any man be strong by believing a lie? Have you not told
us, nobly enough, that every lie is by its nature rotten, doomed to
death, certain to prove its own impotence, and be shattered to atoms the
moment you try to use it, to bring it into rude actual contact with
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