| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: lie on your back in the green pastures and beside the still waters,
and thank God that you are alive.
Come, then, my gentle reader, (for by this time you have discovered
that this chapter is only a preface in disguise,--a declaration of
principles or the want of them, an apology or a defence, as you
choose to take it,) and if we are agreed, let us walk together; but
if not, let us part here with out ill-will.
You shall not be deceived in this book. It is nothing but a
handful of rustic variations on the old tune of "Rest and be
thankful," a record of unconventional travel, a pilgrim's scrip
with a few bits of blue-sky philosophy in it. There is, so far as
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: "I'll come again to-morrow," said he. "Don't twist your hair back so
tightly; it will lose all its curl."
"Well, you are a funny one," she said. "Good night."
By the time Sabina was ready for bed Anna was snoring. She brushed out her
long hair and gathered it in her hands...Perhaps it would be a pity if it
lost all its curl. Then she looked down at her straight chemise, and
drawing it off, sat down on the side of the bed.
"I wish," she whispered, smiling sleepily, "there was a great big
looking-glass in this room."
Lying down in the darkness, she hugged her little body.
"I wouldn't be the Frau for one hundred marks--not for a thousand marks.
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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 Poems by Bronte Sisters: She sleeps in peace, and I am free,
No longer terror's slave:
And homage still, from all the world,
Shall greet my spotless name,
Since surges break and waves are curled
Above its threatened shame."
III. THE WELCOME HOME.
Above the city hangs the moon,
Some clouds are boding rain;
Gilbert, erewhile on journey gone,
To-night comes home again.
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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 Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: sound of stamping and struggling, and the noise of hoarse, quick
shouts and the rebound of bodies falling and rolling upon the
hard, smooth beach. The thing had not been a farce, after all.
This was fighting at last, and there within arm's length were men
grappling and gripping and hitting one another, each honestly
striving to kill his fellow--Chinamen all, fighting in barbarous
Oriental fashion with nails and teeth when the knife or hatchet
failed. What did he, clubman and college man, in that hideous
trouble that wrought itself out there on that heat-stricken tropic
beach under that morning's sun?
Suddenly there was a flash of red flame, and a billow of thick,
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