| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: polishing every winter.
HARDCASTLE. Ay, and bring back vanity and affectation to last them the
whole year. I wonder why London cannot keep its own fools at home! In
my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they
travel faster than a stage-coach. Its fopperies come down not only as
inside passengers, but in the very basket.
MRS. HARDCASTLE. Ay, your times were fine times indeed; you have been
telling us of them for many a long year. Here we live in an old
rumbling mansion, that looks for all the world like an inn, but that we
never see company. Our best visitors are old Mrs. Oddfish, the
curate's wife, and little Cripplegate, the lame dancing-master; and all
She Stoops to Conquer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: not. If I were, I daresay I could manage to be happy even in her
flat. It must be pure bliss to arrange the furniture just as one
likes, and give all the horrors to the ash-man. If I could only
do over my aunt's drawing-room I know I should be a better
woman."
"Is it so very bad?" he asked sympathetically.
She smiled at him across the tea-pot which she was holding up to
be filled.
"That shows how seldom you come there. Why don't you come
oftener?"
"When I do come, it's not to look at Mrs. Peniston's furniture."
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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 Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: There was a certain king of Bo..he-
As the corporal was entering the confines of Bohemia, my uncle Toby obliged
him to halt for a single moment; he had set out bare-headed, having, since
he pull'd off his Montero-cap in the latter end of the last chapter, left
it lying beside him on the ground.
--The eye of Goodness espieth all things--so that before the corporal had
well got through the first five words of his story, had my uncle Toby twice
touch'd his Montero-cap with the end of his cane, interrogatively--as much
as to say, Why don't you put it on, Trim? Trim took it up with the most
respectful slowness, and casting a glance of humiliation as he did it, upon
the embroidery of the fore-part, which being dismally tarnish'd and fray'd
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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 The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: silent with regard to her own affairs."
"She ought to be," said Sophia, with her married authority. She
was, to her sisters, as one who had passed within the shrine and
was dignifiedly silent with regard to its intimate mysteries.
"I suppose so," assented Anna, with a soft sigh. Amelia sighed
also. Then she took the tea-tray out of the room. She had to
make some biscuits for supper.
Meantime Eudora was pacing homeward with the baby-carriage. Her
serene face was a little perturbed. Her oval cheeks were flushed,
and her mouth now and then trembled. She had, if she followed
her usual course, to pass the Wellwood Inn, but she could
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