| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: had left the bushes.
"She has adopted a baby," said she, and paused like a woman who
had fired a gun, half scared herself and shrinking from the
report.
Ethel seconded her mother. "Yes," said she, "Miss Eudora has
adopted a baby, and she has a baby-carriage, and she wheels it
out any time she takes a notion." Ethel's speech was of the
nature of an after-climax. The baby-carriage weakened the
situation.
The other women seized upon the idea of the carriage to cover
their surprise and prevent too much gloating on the part of Mrs.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: to stain it. Indeed, the published opinion of so many great men
and the repute of your blameless life are too widely famed and
too much reverenced throughout the world to be assailable by any
man, of however great name, or by any arts. I am not so foolish
as to attack one whom everybody praises; nay, it has been and
always will be my desire not to attack even those whom public
repute disgraces. I am not delighted at the faults of any man,
since I am very conscious myself of the great beam in my own eye,
nor can I be the first to cast a stone at the adulteress.
I have indeed inveighed sharply against impious doctrines, and I
have not been slack to censure my adversaries on account, not 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 Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: And Rahero swayed as he stood, and his reason was still asleep.
Now the flame struck hard on the house, wind-wielded, a fracturing blow,
And the end of the roof was burst and fell on the sleepers below;
And the lofty hall, and the feast, and the prostrate bodies of folk,
Shone red in his eyes a moment, and then were swallowed of smoke.
In the mind of Rahero clearness came; and he opened his throat;
And as when a squall comes sudden, the straining sail of a boat
Thunders aloud and bursts, so thundered the voice of the man.
- "The wind and the rain!" he shouted, the mustering word of the clan, (14)
And "up!" and "to arms men of Vaiau!" But silence replied,
Or only the voice of the gusts of the fire, and nothing beside.
Ballads |
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 Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: together and bound all so hard and fast that with all his strength he
could not set himself free. When the work was done, the fox clapped
the horse on the shoulder, and said, 'Jip! Dobbin! Jip!' Then up he
sprang, and moved off, dragging the lion behind him. The beast began
to roar and bellow, till all the birds of the wood flew away for
fright; but the horse let him sing on, and made his way quietly over
the fields to his master's house.
'Here he is, master,' said he, 'I have got the better of him': and
when the farmer saw his old servant, his heart relented, and he said.
'Thou shalt stay in thy stable and be well taken care of.' And so the
poor old horse had plenty to eat, and lived--till he died.
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
