The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: "All right," said the other, and went up through the trapdoor;
and I heard him step across the floor overhead and put down the hay.
James came in to look at us the last thing, and then the door was locked.
I cannot say how long I had slept, nor what time in the night it was,
but I woke up very uncomfortable, though I hardly knew why. I got up;
the air seemed all thick and choking. I heard Ginger coughing
and one of the other horses seemed very restless; it was quite dark,
and I could see nothing, but the stable seemed full of smoke,
and I hardly knew how to breathe.
The trapdoor had been left open, and I thought that was the place
it came through. I listened, and heard a soft rushing sort of noise
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: we got a bucket of water and her valise. It was all one to her, she said,
in what car Lin and I put up; and let it be next door, by all means, if
it pleased him to think he could watch over her safety better so; and she
shut herself in, bidding us good-night. We began spreading straw and
blankets for ourselves, when a whistle sounded far and long, and its tone
rose in pitch as it came.
"I'll get him to run right to the corrals," said the agent, "so the
sheriff can tell the boys he's not after them."
"That'll convince 'em he is," said Lin. "Stop him here, or let him go
through."
But we were not to steer the course that events took now. The rails of
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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 Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: field was unmolested. I could not see a bush or a brier anywhere
within its walls, and hardly a stray pebble showed itself. This
was most surprising in that country of firm ledges, and scattered
stones which all the walls that industry could devise had hardly
begun to clear away off the land. In the narrow field I noticed
some stout stakes, apparently planted at random in the grass and
among the hills of potatoes, but carefully painted yellow and white
to match the house, a neat sharp-edged little dwelling, which
looked strangely modern for its owner. I should have much
sooner believed that the smart young wholesale egg merchant of the
Landing was its occupant than Mr. Tilley, since a man's house is
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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 Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: patients are not only fools and cowards, but also liars.
[Immense sensation at the table. - Sudden retirement of the angular
female in oxydated bombazine. Movement of adhesion - as they say
in the Chamber of Deputies - on the part of the young fellow they
call John. Falling of the old-gentleman-opposite's lower jaw -
(gravitation is beginning to get the better of him.) Our landlady
to Benjamin Franklin, briskly, - Go to school right off, there's a
good boy! Schoolmistress curious, - takes a quick glance at
divinity-student. Divinity-student slightly flushed draws his
shoulders back a little, as if a big falsehood - or truth - had hit
him in the forehead. Myself calm.]
 The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |