| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: man,--he thought, stretching out his hands,--free to work, to
live, to love! Free! His right! He folded the scrap of paper
in his hand. As his nervous fingers took it in, limp and
blotted, so his soul took in the mean temptation, lapped it in
fancied rights, in dreams of improved existences, drifting and
endless as the cloud-seas of color. Clutching it, as if the
tightness of his hold would strengthen his sense of possession,
he went aimlessly down the street. It was his watch at the
mill. He need not go, need never go again, thank God!--shaking
off the thought with unspeakable loathing.
Shall I go over the history of the hours of that night? how the
Life in the Iron-Mills |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: A pail had been upset and water spread in all directions.
The door opened and Pete appeared. He shrugged his shoulders.
"Oh, Gawd," he observed.
He walked over to Maggie and whispered in her ear. "Ah, what
deh hell, Mag? Come ahn and we'll have a hell of a time."
The mother in the corner upreared her head and shook her
tangled locks.
"Teh hell wid him and you," she said, glowering at her
daughter in the gloom. Her eyes seemed to burn balefully. "Yeh've
gone teh deh devil, Mag Johnson, yehs knows yehs have gone teh deh
devil. Yer a disgrace teh yer people, damn yeh. An' now, git out
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: Bourbon. One was the famous doctor, Horace Bianchon; the other was one
of the most elegant men in Paris, the Baron de Rastignac; they were
friends of long standing. Each had sent away his carriage, and no cab
was to be seen in the street; but the night was fine, and the pavement
dry.
"We will walk as far as the boulevard," said Eugene de Rastignac to
Bianchon. "You can get a hackney cab at the club; there is always one
to be found there till daybreak. Come with me as far as my house."
"With pleasure."
"Well, and what have you to say about it?"
"About that woman?" said the doctor coldly.
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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 King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: In this way loyalty to his mission bred apparent disloyalty.
Delightful discourses upon art gave way to fervid pleas for
humanity. For the rest of his life he became a very earnest, if
not always very wise, social reformer and a passionate pleader for
what he believed to be true economic ideals.
There is nothing of all this in "The King of the Golden
River." Unlike his other works, it was written merely to entertain.
Scarcely that, since it was not written for publication at all, but
to meet a challenge set him by a young girl.
The circumstance is interesting. After taking his degree at
Oxford, Ruskin was threatened with consumption and hurried away
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