| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Exiles by Honore de Balzac: organs of sight. His eyes, no doubt, were seeing then the remoter
images which the grave has in store for us.
Never, perhaps, had this man presented so grand an aspect. A terrible
struggle was going on in his soul, and reacted on his outer frame;
strong man as he seemed to be, he bent as a reed bows under the breeze
that comes before a storm. Godefroid stood motionless, speechless,
spellbound; some inexplicable force nailed him to the floor; and, as
happens when our attention takes us out of ourselves while watching a
fire or a battle, he was wholly unconscious of his body.
"Shall I tell you the fate to which you were hastening, poor angel of
love? Listen! It has been given to me to see immeasurable space,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: she looked at the big horse pistol in Peter's belt and her hands
itched for the feel of it. They deserved killing, these insolent,
ignorant, arrogant conquerors. But she bit down on her teeth until
her jaw muscles stood out, reminding herself that the time had not
yet come when she could tell the Yankees just what she thought of
them. Some day, yes. My God, yes! But not yet.
"Uncle Peter is one of our family," she said, her voice shaking.
"Good afternoon. Drive on, Peter."
Peter laid the whip on the horse so suddenly that the startled
animal jumped forward and as the buggy jounced off, Scarlett heard
the Maine woman say with puzzled accents: "Her family? You don't
Gone With the Wind |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: astonished was he by the man's solemn words, the tones of his voice,
and the reverence with which he held out the gift.
The two men went back together into the first room. The Sisters were
waiting for them.
"This house that you are living in belongs to Mucius Scaevola, the
plasterer on the first floor," he said. "He is well known in the
Section for his patriotism, but in reality he is an adherent of the
Bourbons. He used to be a huntsman in the service of his Highness the
Prince de Conti, and he owes everything to him. So long as you stay in
the house, you are safer here than anywhere else in France. Do not go
out. Pious souls will minister to your necessities, and you can wait
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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 Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: but they had to have natural talent for it; it wasn't a thing
a body could learn, you had to be born with it. Let me see:
there was Ben Thornburg, and Beck Jolly, and Squire Bell,
and Horace Bixby, and Major Downing, and John Stevenson,
and Billy Gordon, and Jim Brady, and George Ealer,
and Billy Youngblood--all A 1 alligator pilots. THEY could tell
alligator water as far as another Christian could tell whiskey.
Read it?--Ah, COULDN'T they, though! I only wish I had as many
dollars as they could read alligator water a mile and a half off.
Yes, and it paid them to do it, too. A good alligator pilot could
always get fifteen hundred dollars a month. Nights, other people
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