| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: "Yes."
They sat quite still, excepting that only sometimes he raised her fingers
softly to his mouth.
Doss, who had been asleep in the corner, waking suddenly, planted himself
before them, his wiry legs moving nervously, his yellow eyes filled with
anxiety. He was not at all sure that she was not being retained in her
present position against her will, and was not a little relieved when she
sat up and held out her hand for the shawl.
"I must go," she said.
The stranger wrapped the shawl very carefully about her.
"Keep it close around your face, Lyndall; it is very damp outside. Shall I
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: air, and troops of Elves in their gayest robes hastened to the palace
where the feast was spread.
Soon the bright hall was filled with smiling faces and fair forms, and
little Eva, as she stood beside the Queen, thought she had never seen
a sight so lovely.
The many-colored shadows of the fairest flowers played on the pure
white walls, and fountains sparkled in the sunlight, making music
as the cool waves rose and fell, while to and fro, with waving wings
and joyous voices, went the smiling Elves, bearing fruit and honey,
or fragrant garlands for each other's hair.
Long they feasted, gayly they sang, and Eva, dancing merrily
Flower Fables |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: honesty, now whiningly implores our sympathy, now shows his
teeth upon the dung-heap with an ugly snarl. He envies
bitterly, envies passionately. Poverty, he protests, drives
men to steal, as hunger makes the wolf sally from the forest.
The poor, he goes on, will always have a carping word to say,
or, if that outlet be denied, nourish rebellious thoughts.
It is a calumny on the noble army of the poor. Thousands in
a small way of life, ay, and even in the smallest, go through
life with tenfold as much honour and dignity and peace of
mind, as the rich gluttons whose dainties and state-beds
awakened Villon's covetous temper. And every morning's sun
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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 A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: But she had one ineradicable sign of low birth,--her foot was short
and fat. No inherited quality ever caused greater distress. Florine
had tried everything, short of amputation, to get rid of it. The feet
were obstinate, like the Breton race from which she came; they
resisted all treatment. Florine now wore long boots stuffed with
cotton, to give length, and the semblance of an instep. Her figure was
of medium height, threatened with corpulence, but still well-balanced,
and well-made.
Morally, she was an adept in all the attitudinizing, quarrelling,
alluring, and cajoling of her business; and she gave to those actions
a savor of their own by playing childlike innocence, and slipping in
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