| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: sly look at the deacons.
"And me a-waitin' to discuss the new church service," bellowed
Strong.
"And me a-waiting to give him Mrs. Elverson's message," piped
Elverson.
"The church bore all this in silence so long as that girl was
sick," snapped Miss Perkins. "But now she's perfectly well, and
still a-hanging on. No wonder folks are talking."
"Who's talking?" thundered Strong.
"Didn't you know?" simpered Mrs. Willoughby, not knowing herself
nor caring, so long as the suspicion grew.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: editor, seeing him reading the early edition, his feet on his desk,
carried over his coffee and doughnuts and joined him.
"Sometime," he said, "I'm going to get that Clark story out of you.
If it wasn't you who turned up the confession, I'll eat it."
Bassett yawned.
"Have it your own way," he said indifferently. "You were shielding
somebody, weren't you? No? What's the answer?"
Bassett made no reply. He picked up the paper and pointed to an
item with the end of his pencil.
"Seen this?"
The night editor read it with bewilderment. He glanced up.
The Breaking Point |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: industrious a guide as Hans, and accompanied by so determined a
nephew as myself, go on to final success? Such were the magnificent
plans which struggled for mastery within me. If it had been proposed
to me to return to the summit of Snæfell, I should have indignantly
declined.
Most fortunately, all we had to do was to descend.
"Let us start!" I cried, awakening by my shouts the echoes of the
vaulted hollows of the earth.
On Thursday, at 8 a.m., we started afresh. The granite tunnel winding
from side to side, earned us past unexpected turns, and
seemed almost to form a labyrinth; but, on the whole, its direction
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
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 Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: exacting mutual disregard in a misty garden of fine sentiments.
But did any woman get anything better from a man? Perhaps every
woman conceals herself from a man perforce! . . .
She thought of Capes. She could not help thinking of Capes.
Surely Capes was different. Capes looked at one and not over
one, spoke to one, treated one as a visible concrete fact. Capes
saw her, felt for her, cared for her greatly, even if he did not
love her. Anyhow, he did not sentimentalize her. And she had
been doubting since that walk in the Zoological Gardens whether,
indeed, he did simply care for her. Little things, almost
impalpable, had happened to justify that doubt; something in his
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