| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: Berlin, but no one believed it. We concluded it rather a
speculation of the newsmen, who are hawking revolutions after every
mail in second and third editions. We were going that evening to a
SOIREE at Bunsen's, whom we found cheerful as ever and fearing no
evil. On Monday the news of the revolution in Austria produced a
greater sensation even than France, for it was the very pivot of
conservatism. . . . On Thursday I received the letter from A. at
eight A.M., which I enclose to you. It gives an account of the
revolution in Berlin.
LETTER: To T.D.
March 31
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: although we had penetrated to a depth of nearly four miles.
I told Perry, and he smiled.
"We have shattered one theory at least," was his
only comment, and then he returned to his self-assumed
occupation of fluently cursing the steering wheel.
I once heard a pirate swear, but his best efforts would
have seemed like those of a tyro alongside of Perry's
masterful and scientific imprecations.
Once more I tried my hand at the wheel, but I might
as well have essayed to swing the earth itself. At my
suggestion Perry stopped the generator, and as we came
At the Earth's Core |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: babe, and poisons life with POOR MARY ANN or LONG, LONG AGO; he
knows what he is about when he loads the critical ear and sickens
the nice conscience with intolerable thanks; they know what they
are about, he and his crew, when they pervade the slums of cities,
ghastly parodies of suffering, hateful parodies of gratitude. This
trade can scarce be called an imposition; it has been so blown upon
with exposures; it flaunts its fraudulence so nakedly. We pay them
as we pay those who show us, in huge exaggeration, the monsters of
our drinking-water; or those who daily predict the fall of Britain.
We pay them for the pain they inflict, pay them, and wince, and
hurry on. And truly there is nothing that can shake the conscience
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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 An International Episode by Henry James: gilded, and tied with a great many ribbons--and one of the ladies
(a very young person, with a little snub nose and several dimples)
offered Percy Beaumont a fan. The fan was also adorned with pink
love knots; but Percy Beaumont declined it, although he was very hot.
Presently, however, it became cooler; the breeze from the sea
was delicious, the view was charming, and the people sitting there
looked exceedingly fresh and comfortable. Several of the ladies
seemed to be young girls, and the gentlemen were slim, fair youths,
such as our friends had seen the day before in New York.
The ladies were working upon bands of tapestry, and one of the young
men had an open book in his lap. Beaumont afterward learned
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