| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: "Always fighting," said Amelia, and also lifted her
chin and nose. Amelia was a born mimic. She
actually looked like Lily, and she spoke like her.
Then Lily did a wonderful thing. She doubled her
soft little arm into an inviting loop for Amelia's little
claw of a hand.
"Come along, Amelia Wheeler," said she. "We
don't want to stay near horrid, fighting boys. We
will go by ourselves."
And they went. Madame had a headache that
morning, and the Japanese gong did not ring for
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: had been popular in London the year before, so that one might
have thought him working in the security of an English flying
field surrounded by innumerable comrades rather than alone
in the heart of an unexplored African wilderness. It was
typical of the man that he should be wholly indifferent to his
surroundings, although his looks entirely belied any assump-
tion that he was of particularly heroic strain.
Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick was fair-hatred,
blue-eyed, and slender, with a rosy, boyish face that might
have been molded more by an environment of luxury, indo-
lence, and ease than the more strenuous exigencies of life's
Tarzan the Untamed |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: "Is it true, my lord, the you have a hungry and relentless creditor?"
said he.
"Yes, yes," replied the other, "it concerns the mistress of the king.
Don't breathe a syllable; but this evening, in consideration of 20,000
crowns and my domain of Brie, I shall take her measure."
Upon this the advocate blanched, and the courtier perceived he touched
a tender point. As he had only lately returned from the wars, he did
not know that the lovely woman adored by the king had a husband.
"You appear ill," he said.
"I have a fever," replied the knave. "But is it to her that you give
the contract and the money?"
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
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 Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: first broiled sweetbread he caught the nurse outside, borrowed her
cap and apron and carried in the tray himself.
"I hope your food is to your taste, Doctor David," he said, in a
high falsetto which set the nurse giggling in the hall. "I may not
be much of a nurse, but I can cook."
Even Lucy was deceived at times. He went his customary round, sent
out the monthly bills, opened and answered David's mail, bore the
double burden of David's work and his own ungrudgingly, but off
guard he was grave and abstracted. He began to look very thin, too,
and Lucy often heard him pacing the floor at night. She thought
that he seldom or never went to the Wheeler's.
The Breaking Point |
