| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: CHAPTER 14. FOR THE WORLD'S CHAMPIONSHIP
The scene on which Helen Messiter's eyes rested that mellow
Fourth of July was vivid enough to have interested a far more
jaded mind than hers. Nowhere outside of Cattleland could it have
been duplicated. Wyoming is sparsely populated, but the riders of
the plains think nothing of traveling a hundred miles in the
saddle to be present at a "broncobusting" contest. Large
delegations, too, had come in by railroad from Caspar, Billings,
Sheridan, Cheyenne and a score of other points, so that the
amphitheatre that looked down on the arena was filled to its
capacity.
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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 Gift of the Magi by O. Henry: and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they
are wisest. They are the magi.
End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of THE GIFT OF THE MAGI.
The Gift of the Magi |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Glasses by Henry James: impressed them on its finger-tips. It was given me however, to my
astonishment, to feel next that all the privacy in the world
couldn't have sufficed to mitigate the start with which she greeted
this free application of my moustache: the blood had jumped to her
face, she quickly recovered her hand and jerked at me, twisting
herself round, a vacant challenging stare. During the next few
instants several extraordinary things happened, the first of which
was that now I was close to them the eyes of loveliness I had come
up to look into didn't show at all the conscious light I had just
been pleased to see them flash across the house: they showed on
the contrary, to my confusion, a strange sweet blankness, an
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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 Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand
made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken,
there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was
clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar
a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians
of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their
performance, to harken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce
ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the
whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it
was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and
sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused
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