| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: devil. Yeh wanta go trompin' off with a bad
hurt. It ain't right--now--Tom Jamison--it ain't.
Yeh wanta leave me take keer of yeh, Tom Jami-
son. It ain't--right--it ain't--fer yeh t' go--
trompin' off--with a bad hurt--it ain't--ain't--
ain't right--it ain't."
In reply the youth climbed a fence and
started away. He could hear the tattered man
bleating plaintively.
Once he faced about angrily. "What?"
"Look--a--here, now, Tom Jamison--now--
The Red Badge of Courage |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Princess by Alfred Tennyson: I loved you like this kneeler, and you me
Your second mother: those were gracious times.
Then came your new friend: you began to change--
I saw it and grieved--to slacken and to cool;
Till taken with her seeming openness
You turned your warmer currents all to her,
To me you froze: this was my meed for all.
Yet I bore up in part from ancient love,
And partly that I hoped to win you back,
And partly conscious of my own deserts,
And partly that you were my civil head,
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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 Touchstone by Edith Wharton: of forecasting her judgment and powerless to evade its effects.
To escape, the next morning, the confidences of the breakfast-
table, he went to town earlier than usual. His wife, who read
slowly, was given to talking over what she read, and at present
his first object in life was to postpone the inevitable discussion
of the letters. This instinct of protection in the afternoon, on
his way uptown, guided him to the club in search of a man who
might be persuaded to come out to the country to dine. The only
man in the club was Flamel.
Glennard, as he heard himself almost involuntarily pressing Flamel
to come and dine, felt the full irony of the situation. To use
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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 Case of the Registered Letter by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: She seemed surprised that it had been locked. She said that the
door was always unlatched, and that Mr. Siders himself must have
closed it, contrary to all custom, for she had not done it, and
there was no one else in the house but the two of them. Siders
was waiting for me at the top of the stairs, calling down a noisy
welcome.
"When I asked him finally what it was so important that he wanted
to say to me, he evaded me and continued to chatter on about
commonplace things. Finally I insisted upon knowing why he had
wanted me to come, and he replied that the reason for it had already
been fulfilled, that he had nothing more to say, and that I could go
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