| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: dark front was seen in the gloomy distance, with its huge stacks
of chimneys, turrets, and clock-house, rising above the line of
the roof, and definedly visible against the pure azure blue of
the summer sky. One light only twinkled from the extended and
shadowy mass, and it was placed so low that it rather seemed to
glimmer from the ground in front of the mansion than from one of
the windows. The Countess's terror was awakened. "They follow
us!" she said, pointing out to Janet the light which thus
alarmed her.
Less agitated than her mistress, Janet perceived that the gleam
was stationary, and informed the Countess, in a whisper, that the
Kenilworth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Faith of Men by Jack London: without the ideals and illusions that usually hamper the progress
of more delicately nurtured adventurers. Born and reared on the
frontier fringe of the United States, he took with him into Canada
a primitive cast of mind, an elemental simplicity and grip on
things, as it were, that insured him immediate success in his new
career. From a mere servant of the Hudson Bay Company, driving a
paddle with the voyageurs and carrying goods on his back across the
portages, he swiftly rose to a Factorship and took charge of a
trading post at Fort Angelus.
Here, because of his elemental simplicity, he took to himself a
native wife, and, by reason of the connubial bliss that followed,
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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 Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: bath."
"It is the early afternoon languor. If a man has nothing to do, he
will sooner get into mischief than do nothing at all; this invariably
happens in France. Youth at present day has two sides to it; the
studious or unappreciated, and the ardent or /passionne/."
"That will do!" repeated Mme. de Rochefide, with an authoritative
gesture. "You are setting my nerves on edge."
"To finish my portrait of La Palferine, I hasten to make the plunge
into the gallant regions of his character, or you will not understand
the peculiar genius of an admirable representative of a certain
section of mischievous youth--youth strong enough, be it said, to
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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 Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: placed him in an easy-chair and sought aguardiente for his immediate
refreshment. Since the year's beginning there had been no guest for him
to bring into his rooms, or to sit beside him in the high seats at table,
set apart for the gente fina.
Such another library was not then in California; and though Gaston
Villere, in leaving Harvard College, had shut Horace and Sophocles for
ever at the earliest instant possible under academic requirements, he
knew the Greek and Latin names that he now saw as well as he knew those
of Shakspere, Dante, Moliere, and Cervantes. These were here also; but it
could not be precisely said of them, either, that they made a part of the
young man's daily reading. As he surveyed the Padre's august shelves, it
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