| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: "I was telling Mr. Wyant that my aunts were very particular."
"Quite so, my dear; and did you mention that they never sleep in
anything but linen, and that Miss Sophia puts away the furs and
blankets every spring with her own hands? Both those facts are
interesting to the student of human nature." Doctor Lombard
glanced at his watch. "But we are missing an incomparable
moment; the light is perfect at this hour."
Wyant rose, and the doctor led him through the tapestried door
and down the passageway.
The light was, in fact, perfect, and the picture shone with an
inner radiancy, as though a lamp burned behind the soft screen of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: far off upon my right was the famous Plan de Font Morte, where Poul
with his Armenian sabre slashed down the Camisards of Seguier.
This, methought, might be some Rip van Winkle of the war, who had
lost his comrades, fleeing before Poul, and wandered ever since
upon the mountains. It might be news to him that Cavalier had
surrendered, or Roland had fallen fighting with his back against an
olive. And while I was thus working on my fancy, I heard him
hailing in broken tones, and saw him waving me to come back with
one of his two sticks. I had already got some way past him; but,
leaving Modestine once more, retraced my steps.
Alas, it was a very commonplace affair. The old gentleman had
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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 Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: wished to make him the unconscious instrument of my designs. In
a word, this was my project: I wished to write to Lescaut, and to
charge him and our common friends with the task of my
deliverance. The first difficulty was to have my letter conveyed
to him: this should be Tiberge's office. However, as he knew him
to be Manon's brother, I doubted whether he would take charge of
this commission. My plan was to enclose my letter to Lescaut in
another to some respectable man of my acquaintance, begging of
him to transmit the first to its address without delay; and as it
was necessary that I should have personal communication with
Lescaut, in order to arrange our proceedings, I told him to call
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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 Reef by Edith Wharton: mounting tide; as though everything she was seeing, hearing,
imagining, rushed in to fill the void of all she had always
been denied.
Darrow, as he observed her, again felt a detached enjoyment
in her pleasure. She was an extraordinary conductor of
sensation: she seemed to transmit it physically, in
emanations that set the blood dancing in his veins. He had
not often had the opportunity of studying the effects of a
perfectly fresh impression on so responsive a temperament,
and he felt a fleeting desire to make its chords vibrate for
his own amusement.
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