| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: more than four minutes," I assured them.
"Up the river?" repeated Mrs. Gregory
"At the landing," I repeated. And the ladies consulted each other's
expressions. But that didn't bother me any more.
"And you can admire her?" Mrs. Weguelin persisted.
"May I tell you exactly, precisely?"
"Oh, do!" they both exclaimed.
"Well, I think many wise men would find her immensely desirable--as
somebody else's wife!"
At this remark Mrs. Weguelin dropped her eyes, but I knew they were
dancing beneath their lids. "I should not have permitted myself to say
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: anywhere in bad weather. These flowers of Paris, blooming only in
Oriental weather, perfume the highways; and after five o'clock fold up
like morning-glory flowers. The women you will see later, looking a
little like them, are would-be ladies; while the fair Unknown, your
Beatrice of a day, is a 'perfect lady.'
"It is not very easy for a foreigner, my dear Count, to recognize the
differences by which the observer /emeritus/ distinguishes them--women
are such consummate actresses; but they are glaring in the eyes of
Parisians: hooks ill fastened, strings showing loops of rusty-white
tape through a gaping slit in the back, rubbed shoe-leather, ironed
bonnet-strings, an over-full skirt, an over-tight waist. You will see
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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 Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: the unbroken bush slopes up to the backbone of the island (3 to
4000) without a house, with no inhabitants save a few runaway black
boys, wild pigs and cattle, and wild doves and flying foxes, and
many parti-coloured birds, and many black, and many white: a very
eerie, dim, strange place and hard to travel. I am the head of a
household of five whites, and of twelve Samoans, to all of whom I
am the chief and father: my cook comes to me and asks leave to
marry - and his mother, a fine old chief woman, who has never lived
here, does the same. You may be sure I granted the petition. It
is a life of great interest, complicated by the Tower of Babel,
that old enemy. And I have all the time on my hands for literary
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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 A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: he does not willingly let it happen.
When so tempted, a man must indeed be wise, and not doubt that
he and his prayer are, indeed, unworthy before such infinite
Majesty; in no wise dare he trust his worthiness, or because of
his unworthiness grow faint; but he must heed God's command and
cast this up to Him, and hold it before the devil, and say:
"Because of my worthiness I do nothing, because of my
unworthiness I cease from nothing. I pray and work only because
God of His pure mercy has promised to hear and to be gracious to
all unworthy men, and not only promised it, but He has also most
sternly, on pain of His everlasting displeasure and wrath,
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