| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: the alcove. All the little ornaments he had worn, his journals, his
furniture, his Dutch spittoon, his spy-glass hanging by the mantel,
were all there. The widow had stopped the hands of the clock at the
hour of his death, to which they always pointed. The room still smelt
of the powder and the tobacco of the deceased. The hearth was as he
left it. To her, entering there, he was again visible in the many
articles which told of his daily habits. His tall cane with its gold
head was where he had last placed it, with his buckskin gloves close
by. On a table against the wall stood a gold vase, of coarse
workmanship but worth three thousand francs, a gift from Havana, which
city, at the time of the American War of Independence, he had
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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 Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley: "Don't go away," said all the children; "you have not sung us one
song."
"Well, I have time for only one. So what shall it be?"
"The doll you lost! The doll you lost!" cried all the babies at
once.
So the strange fairy sang:-
I once had a sweet little doll, dears,
The prettiest doll in the world;
Her cheeks were so red and so white, dears,
And her hair was so charmingly curled.
But I lost my poor little doll, dears,
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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 Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: stream. Beyond, towards the north, the forest border was prolonged for a
space of nearly two miles; then the trees became scarcer, and beyond that
again the picturesque heights described a nearly straight line, which ran
north and south. On the contrary, all the part of the shore between Falls
River and Reptile End was a mass of wood, magnificent trees, some straight,
others bent, so that the long sea-swell bathed their roots. Now, it was
this coast, that is, all the Serpentine Peninsula, that was to be explored,
for this part of the shore offered a refuge to castaways, which the other
wild and barren side must have refused.
The weather was fine and clear, and from a height of a hillock on which
Neb and Pencroft had arranged breakfast, a wide view was obtained. There
The Mysterious Island |
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 Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: you understand, poor Stroud--he just lay there quietly watching,
and on his lips, through the gray beard, I seemed to hear the
question: 'Are you sure you know where you're coming out?'
"If I could have painted that face, with that question on it, I
should have done a great thing. The next greatest thing was to
see that I couldn't--and that grace was given me. But, oh, at
that minute, Rickham, was there anything on earth I wouldn't have
given to have Stroud alive before me, and to hear him say: 'It's
not too late--I'll show you how'?
"It WAS too late--it would have been, even if he'd been alive. I
packed up my traps, and went down and told Mrs. Stroud. Of
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