| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: wench of no family and without a farthing,--who would be honored,
if I should allow her to feed my hogs? Live for HIM? live for
HIM? Ah-R-R-R!"
This outbreak terminated in a sound between a snarl and a bellow.
The priests turned pale, but the Abbot devoutly remarked--
"Encompassed by sorrows, Prince, you should humbly submit to the
will of the Lord."
"Submit to Borka?" the Prince scornfully laughed. "I know what
I'll do. There's time enough yet for a wife and another child,--
ay,--a dozen children! I can have my pick in the province; and if
I couldn't I'd sooner take Masha, the goose-girl, than leave Borka
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: without daring to make the slightest movement. An odor, pungent like
that of a fox, but more penetrating, more profound,--so to speak,--
filled the cave, and when the Provencal became sensible of this, his
terror reached its height, for he could no longer doubt the proximity
of a terrible companion, whose royal dwelling served him for a
shelter.
Presently the reflection of the moon descending on the horizon lit up
the den, rendering gradually visible and resplendent the spotted skin
of a panther.
This lion of Egypt slept, curled up like a big dog, the peaceful
possessor of a sumptuous niche at the gate of an hotel; its eyes
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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 New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: attitude of perplexity and thought. Then he emptied the broken
bandbox on the table, and stood before the treasure, thus fully
displayed, with an expression of rapturous greed, and rubbing his
hands upon his thighs. For Harry, the sight of the man's face
under the influence of this base emotion, added another pang to
those he was already suffering. It seemed incredible that, from
his life of pure and delicate trifling, he should be plunged in a
breath among sordid and criminal relations. He could reproach his
conscience with no sinful act; and yet he was now suffering the
punishment of sin in its most acute and cruel forms - the dread of
punishment, the suspicions of the good, and the companionship and
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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 The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: the kitchen later on he found her still there, at the table where
he had left her, her arms across it and her face buried in them.
On a chair was the suitcase she had hastily packed for him, and a
roll of bills lay on the table.
"You must take it," she insisted. "It breaks my heart to think
- Dick, I have the feeling that I am seeing you for the last time."
Then for fear she had hurt him she forced a determined smile. "Don't
pay any attention to me. David will tell you that I have said, over
and over, that I'd never see you again. And here you are!"
He was going. He had said good-bye to David and was going at once.
She accepted it with a stoicism born of many years of hail and
The Breaking Point |
