| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: to know is that I have tried to do the right thing." And then he
explained that he had willed everything he was possessed of to her.
"She didn't tell you, I suppose?"
Mr. Smith shook his head slightly. And Anthony, trying to be
friendly, was just saying that he proposed to keep the ship away
from home for at least two years. "I think, sir, that from every
point of view it would be best," when Flora came back and the
conversation, cut short in that direction, languished and died.
Later in the evening, after Anthony had been gone for hours, on the
point of separating for the night, Mr. Smith remarked suddenly to
his daughter after a long period of brooding:
Chance |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Octopus by Frank Norris: progress?"
"Oh, most famously, I assure you," she said. "Such a movement as
we have started. Those poor creatures. The photographs of them
are simply dreadful. I had the committee to luncheon the other
day and we passed them around. We are getting subscriptions from
all over the State, and Mr. Cedarquist is to arrange for the
ship."
The Relief Committee in question was one of a great number that
had been formed in California--and all over the Union, for the
matter of that--to provide relief for the victims of a great
famine in Central India. The whole world had been struck with
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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 Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: see that she looks different as the ladies in this
country. So Frau Nirlanger wants she should buy
here in the stores new dresses--echt Amerikanische.
All new and beautiful things she would have, because
she must look young, ain't it? And perhaps her boy
will remember her when he is a fine young man, if
she is yet young when he grows up, you see? And too,
there is the young husband. First, she gives up her old
life, and her friends and her family for this man, and
then she must do all things to keep him. Men, they are
but children, after all," spake the wise Frau Knapf in
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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 Finished by H. Rider Haggard: grandfather, saw the light--who knows how long before--a man was
born of high blood in the Dwandwe tribe, which man was a dwarf.
Chaka the Black One conquered the Dwandwe, but this man of high
blood was spared because he was a dwarf, an abortion, to whom
Chaka gave the name of the
'Thing-that-never-should-have-been-born,' keeping him about him
to be a mock in times of peace and safety, and because he was
wise and learned in magic, to be a counsellor in times of
trouble. Moreover, Chaka killed this man's wives and children
for his sport, save one whom he kept to be his 'sister.'
"Therefore for the sake of his people and his butchered wives and
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