| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: you, Ted, we've got to have Vision--"
"I think those correspondence-courses are terrible!"
The philosophers gasped. It was Mrs. Babbitt who had made this discord in
their spiritual harmony, and one of Mrs. Babbitt's virtues was that, except
during dinner-parties, when she was transformed into a raging hostess, she
took care of the house and didn't bother the males by thinking. She went on
firmly:
"It sounds awful to me, the way they coax those poor young folks to think
they're learning something, and nobody 'round to help them and--You two learn
so quick, but me, I always was slow. But just the same--"
Babbitt attended to her: "Nonsense! Get just as much, studying at home. You
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: marchands into the bosom of your social set when you came here,"
growled Philip, at last.
"But, Cousin Phil, can't you see he is a gentleman? The fact
that he makes no excuses or protestations is a proof."
"You are a fool," was the polite response.
Still, at six o'clock next morning, there was a little crowd of
seven upon the pier, laughing and chatting at the little
"Virginie" dipping her bows in the water and flapping her sails
in the brisk wind. Natalie's pink bonnet blushed in the early
sunshine, and Natalie's mamma, comely and portly, did chaperonage
duty. It was not long before the sails gave swell into the
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: poked out at the door or windows, and was immediately saluted by a gun-
shot.
"Let us hide ourselves," at last said the engineer. "Perhaps the apes
will think we have gone quite away and will show themselves again. Let
Spilett and Herbert conceal themselves behind those rocks and fire on all
that may appear."
The engineer's orders were obeyed, and while the reporter and the lad,
the best marksmen in the colony, posted themselves in a good position, but
out of the monkeys' sight, Neb, Pencroft, and Cyrus climbed the plateau and
entered the forest in order to kill some game, for it was now time for
breakfast and they had no provisions remaining.
The Mysterious Island |
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 Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: result in causes hidden to other eyes but perceptible to their own.
The Spanish girl profited by this moment of stupefaction to let
herself fall into the ecstasy of that infinite adoration which seizes
the heart of a woman, when she truly loves and finds herself in the
presence of an idol for whom she has vainly longed. Her eyes were all
joy, all happiness, and sparks flew from them. She was under the
charm, and fearlessly intoxicated herself with a felicity of which she
had dreamed long. She seemed then so marvelously beautiful to Henri,
that all this phantasmagoria of rags and old age, of worn red drapery
and of the green mats in front of the armchairs, the ill-washed red
tiles, all this sick and dilapidated luxury, disappeared.
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
