| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Awakening & Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin: unattainable.
The moments glided on, while a feeling of good fellowship
passed around the circle like a mystic cord, holding and binding
these people together with jest and laughter. Monsieur Ratignolle
was the first to break the pleasant charm. At ten o'clock he
excused himself. Madame Ratignolle was waiting for him at home.
She was bien souffrante, and she was filled with vague dread,
which only her husband's presence could allay.
Mademoiselle Reisz arose with Monsieur Ratignolle, who offered
to escort her to the car. She had eaten well; she had tasted the
good, rich wines, and they must have turned her head, for she bowed
Awakening & Selected Short Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?
In our present differences is either party without faith of being
in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with his eternal
truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours
of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail,
by the judgment of this great tribunal, the American people.
By the frame of the government under which we live, this same people
have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief;
and have, with equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little
to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain
their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of
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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 Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: of a tree, and that both the others had something odd in their
aspect, although he could not quite determine what it was, in
the little while that he had to examine them.
The folding doors swung quickly back, and left him standing
behind the pillar, in the solitude of the outer hall. There
Eurylochus waited until he was quite weary, and listened
eagerly to every sound, but without hearing anything that could
help him to guess what had become of his friends. Footsteps, it
is true, seemed to be passing and repassing, in other parts of
the palace. Then there was a clatter of silver dishes, or
golden ones, which made him imagine a rich feast in a splendid
Tanglewood Tales |
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 Jolly Corner by Henry James: He came down further, he crossed the passage forming the access to
the last flight and if here again he stopped an instant it was
almost for the sharpness of the thrill of assured escape. It made
him shut his eyes - which opened again to the straight slope of the
remainder of the stairs. Here was impunity still, but impunity
almost excessive; inasmuch as the side-lights and the high
fantracery of the entrance were glimmering straight into the hall;
an appearance produced, he the next instant saw, by the fact that
the vestibule gaped wide, that the hinged halves of the inner door
had been thrown far back. Out of that again the QUESTION sprang at
him, making his eyes, as he felt, half-start from his head, as they
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