| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: Amelia. "Anyway, the Lawtons turned gray young."
"She won't think of that at all," said Sophia.
"I wonder why Eudora always avoided him so, years ago," said
Amelia.
"Why doesn't a girl in a field of daisies stop to pick one, which
she never forgets?" said Sophia. "Eudora had so many chances,
and I don't think her heart was fixed when she was very young; at
least, I don't think it was fixed so she knew it."
"I wonder," said Amelia, "if he will go and call on her."
Amelia privately wished that she lived near enough to know if
Harry Lawton did call. She, as well as Mrs. Joseph Glynn, would
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: indeed are enough to sicken him altogether with the chase."
The characters, bodily and other, exhibited by the finer specimens of
the same breed,[33] I will now set forth.
[33] Or, "The features, points, qualities, whether physical or other,
which characterise the better indidivuals." But what does Xenophon
mean by {tou autou genous}?
IV
In the first place, this true type of hound should be of large build;
and, in the next place, furnished with a light small head, broad and
flat in the snout,[1] well knit and sinewy, the lower part of the
forehead puckered into strong wrinkles; eyes set well up[2] in the
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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 Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: Smiling thereafterwards, said Beatrice:
"Illustrious life, by whom the benefactions
Of our Basilica have been described,
Make Hope resound within this altitude;
Thou knowest as oft thou dost personify it
As Jesus to the three gave greater clearness."--
"Lift up thy head, and make thyself assured;
For what comes hither from the mortal world
Must needs be ripened in our radiance."
This comfort came to me from the second fire;
Wherefore mine eyes I lifted to the hills,
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
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 Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: maid tapped gently on the happy man's forehead, whispering in his ear,
"It is time, get into your clothes and off you go--it's daylight." The
good man grieved to lose his treasure, and wished to see the source of
his vanished happiness.
"Oh! Oh!" said he, proceeding to compare certain things, "I've got
light hair, and this is dark."
"What have you done?" said the servant; "Madame will see she has been
duped."
"But look."
"Ah!" said she, with an air of disdain, "do you not know, you who
knows everything, that that which is plucked dies and discolours?" and
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
