| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: The only riches of the former had been his stout heart and strong
arm; but the latter, her father's sole heiress, had made her
husband master of a farm, under older cultivation, larger, and
better stocked than most of the frontier establishments. Reuben
Bourne, however, was a neglectful husbandman; and, while the
lands of the other settlers became annually more fruitful, his
deteriorated in the same proportion. The discouragements to
agriculture were greatly lessened by the cessation of Indian war,
during which men held the plough in one hand and the musket in
the other, and were fortunate if the products of their dangerous
labor were not destroyed, either in the field or in the barn, by
Mosses From An Old Manse |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: witticism on Champcenetz, "He is the moonlight of me." He was
simply his double, a paler and poorer double, for there was
between them all the difference that lies between the first and
last impressions of a lithograph.
This speechless old man was a mystery to the painter, and always
remained a mystery. The Chevalier, for he was a Chevalier, did
not speak, nobody spoke to him. Was he a friend, a poor relation,
a man who followed at the old gallant's heels as a lady companion
does at an old lady's? Did he fill a place midway between a dog,
a parrot, and a friend? Had he saved his patron's fortune, or
only his life? Was he the Trim to another Captain Toby?
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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 Amazing Interlude by Mary Roberts Rinehart: and open arms fade into the shadows.
The drama of the war plays on. The Great Playwright sees fit, now and
then, to take away some well-beloved players. New faces appear and
disappear. The music is the thunder of many guns. Henri still plays
his big part, Sara Lee her little one. Yet who shall say, in the end,
which one has done the better? There are new and ever new standards,
but love remains the chief. And love is Sara Lee's one quality - love
of her kind, of tired men and weary, the love that shall one day knit
this broken world together. And love of one man.
On weary nights, when Henri is again lost in the shadows, Sara Lee,
her work done, the men gone, sits in her little house of mercy and
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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 Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: belonged to moderately rich families in Beauvais, a town in which the
gentle manners and loyalty of the provinces are transmitted as a
species of birthright. Attracted to the theatre of war before the date
at which they were required to begin their functions, they had
travelled by diligence to Strasburg. Though maternal prudence had only
allowed them a slender sum of money they thought themselves rich in
possessing a few louis, an actual treasure in those days when
assignats were reaching their lowest depreciation and gold was worth
far more than silver. The two young surgeons, about twenty years of
age at the most, yielded themselves up to the poesy of their situation
with all the enthusiasm of youth. Between Strasburg and Bonn they had
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