| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: of expensive habits, of charming ways with women.
He had for his own town residence a big house filled
with the spoils of travel and the trophies of the chase;
but it was to his country home, an old family place in Essex,
that he wished her immediately to proceed.
He had been left, by the death of their parents in India,
guardian to a small nephew and a small niece, children of a younger,
a military brother, whom he had lost two years before.
These children were, by the strangest of chances for a man
in his position--a lone man without the right sort of
experience or a grain of patience--very heavily on his hands.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: Is there any principle in them? Why should the next topic follow next in
order, or any other topic? I cannot help fancying in my ignorance that he
wrote off boldly just what came into his head, but I dare say that you
would recognize a rhetorical necessity in the succession of the several
parts of the composition?
PHAEDRUS: You have too good an opinion of me if you think that I have any
such insight into his principles of composition.
SOCRATES: At any rate, you will allow that every discourse ought to be a
living creature, having a body of its own and a head and feet; there should
be a middle, beginning, and end, adapted to one another and to the whole?
PHAEDRUS: Certainly.
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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 A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: and if they come to the Caves of the Daemons today I shall get a
chance to lead some of them to my Cave of Repentance."
"Do you never repent, yourself?" asked Santa Claus, curiously.
"Oh, yes, indeed," answered the Daemon. "I am even now repenting that
I assisted in your capture. Of course it is too late to remedy the
evil that has been done; but repentance, you know, can come only after
an evil thought or deed, for in the beginning there is nothing to
repent of."
"So I understand," said Santa Claus. "Those who avoid evil need never
visit your cave."
"As a rule, that is true," replied the Daemon; "yet you, who have done
A Kidnapped Santa Claus |
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 Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: employed in the same way. Lastly, the word for "is," which strictly
means "exists," expresses this existence under three different
forms,--in a matter-of-fact, a flowing, or an inflated style;
the solid, liquid, and gaseous states of conversation, so to speak,
to suit the person addressed. But three forms being far too few for
the needs of so elaborate a politeness, these are supplemented by
many interpolated grades.
Terms of respect are applied not only to those mortals who are held
in estimation higher than their fellows, but to all men
indiscriminately as well. The grammatical attitude of the
individual toward the speaker is of as much importance as his social
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