| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: one in a crushed broad-brimmed hat, with an affectation of
artistic untidiness; the other in a sealskin cap, a man not poor,
though he affected to belong to the Bohemia of learning. He
liked the snow, the pale street lamps, the sharp black tracks
left in the first snow by the feet of the passers-by. He liked
the air, and especially that limpid, tender, naive, as it were
virginal tone, which can be seen in nature only twice in the
year -- when everything is covered with snow, and in spring on
bright days and moonlight evenings when the ice breaks on the
river.
"Against my will an unknown force,
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: just what you're maning."
"Oh! I mean does she have a day sometimes when she gets ready for company and
expects to have people come and see her, the way ladies do in town?"
"Well, no, miss; she don't do tbat, for, tin to one, nobody'd come if she did.
We belongs to the workin' classes, Molly and I, and we has no time for the
doing of the loikes of city people."
"I'm sorry she hasn't a day," said Tattine, "because--because--"
"If ye're maning that you'd like to give us a call, miss," said Patrick,
beginning to take in the situation, "shure she could have a day at home as
aisy as the foinest lady, and proud indeed she'd be to have it with your
little self for the guest of honor."
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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 Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: for not residing in Paris and for keeping the king and court in a
castle the whole exterior surroundings of which could easily be
watched and defended. A struggle was now beginning around the throne,
between the house of Lorraine and the house of Valois, which was
destined to end in this very chateau, twenty-eight years later, namely
in 1588, when Henri III., under the very eyes of his mother, at that
moment deeply humiliated by the Lorrains, heard fall upon the floor of
his own cabinet, the head of the boldest of all the Guises, the second
Balafre, son of that first Balafre by whom Catherine de' Medici was
now being tricked, watched, threatened, and virtually imprisoned.
IV
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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 Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: Gothic characters:
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| Agathon Carter |
| The Valley of Love |
| Kittasquattamy, N. Y. |
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Dr. Carver bowed himself out, and Mrs. Manson,
with a sigh that might have been either of regret or
relief, again waved Archer to a seat.
"Ellen will be down in a moment; and before she
comes, I am so glad of this quiet moment with you."
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