| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: impotent to express. With a face, voice, and manner trained through
forty years to terrify and repel, Rhadamanthus may be great, but he will
scarce be engaging. It is a fact that he tried to propitiate Archie,
but a fact that cannot be too lightly taken; the attempt was so
unconspicuously made, the failure so stoically supported. Sympathy is
not due to these steadfast iron natures. If he failed to gain his son's
friendship, or even his son's toleration, on he went up the great, bare
staircase of his duty, uncheered and undepressed. There might have been
more pleasure in his relations with Archie, so much he may have
recognised at moments; but pleasure was a by-product of the singular
chemistry of life, which only fools expected.
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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 Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: closed.
"Never a more delightful garden-party ..." "The greatest success ..."
"Quite the most ..."
Laura helped her mother with the good-byes. They stood side by side in the
porch till it was all over.
"All over, all over, thank heaven," said Mrs. Sheridan. "Round up the
others, Laura. Let's go and have some fresh coffee. I'm exhausted. Yes,
it's been very successful. But oh, these parties, these parties! Why will
you children insist on giving parties!" And they all of them sat down in
the deserted marquee.
"Have a sandwich, daddy dear. I wrote the flag."
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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 Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: and of an old family, he would have rivaled Mar-
garet. Beside him sat an elderly woman, sweet-
faced, slightly bent as to her slender shoulders, as if
with a chronic attitude of submission. She was
Sydney's widowed sister, Ellen Waters. She lived
with her brother and kept his house, and had no
will other than his.
Sydney Lord and his sister remained when the rest
of the audience had drifted out, after the privileged
hand-shakes with the queen of the show. Every
time a coarse, rustic hand reached familiarly after
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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 Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: present; and hence, unquestionably, many subjects which delight
us in poetry or in narrative, whether real or fictitious, cannot
with advantage be transferred to the canvas.
Being in some degree aware of these difficulties, though
doubtless unacquainted both with their extent and the means by
which they may be modified or surmounted, I have, nevertheless,
ventured to draw up the following traditional narrative as a
story in which, when the general details are known, the interest
is so much concentrated in one strong moment of agonizing
passion, that it can be understood and sympathized with at a
single glance. I therefore presume that it may be acceptable as
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