| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: torn old spelling-book Lois had given him. The night, perhaps,
was going to be more to them than so many rainy hours for
sleeping,--the time to be looked back on through coming lives as
the hour when good and ill came to them, and they made their
choice, and, as Holmes said, did abide by it.
It grew cool and darker. Holmes left the phaeton before they
entered town, and turned back. He was going to see this Margret
Howth, tell her what he meant to do. Because he was going to
leave a clean record. No one should accuse him of want of
honour. This girl alone of all living beings had a right to see
him as he stood, justified to himself. Why she had this right, I
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: by the Governor, and embodied in a memorial to the throne, copies
of which the Empress Dowager sent to the governors and viceroys
of all the provinces declaring it to be a law, and ordering the
"viceroys, governors and literary chancellors to see that it was
obeyed."
Dr. Hayes and Yuan Shih-kai soon split upon a regulation which
the Governor thought it best to introduce, viz., "That the
Chinese professors shall, on the first and fifteenth of each
month, conduct their classes in reverential sacrifice to the Most
Holy Confucius, and to all the former worthies and scholars of
the provinces." Dr. Hayes and his Christian teachers withdrew,
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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 Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: about the room for some time.
"Oh, isn't that pretty! Is this mechanism your own invention?"
asked Muller smiling. Gyuri watched the top with drawn brows and
murmured something about "childish foolishness."
"Yes, it is my own invention," said the patient, flattered. He
started out on an absolutely technical explanation of the mechanism
of tops in general and of his own in particular, an explanation so
lucid and so well put that no one would have believed the man
who was speaking was not in possession of the full powers of his
mind.
Muller listened very attentively with unfeigned interest.
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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 Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale: Dark splendor of the sea.
The Mystery
Your eyes drink of me,
Love makes them shine,
Your eyes that lean
So close to mine.
We have long been lovers,
We know the range
Of each other's moods
And how they change;
But when we look
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