| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: Men have a firm step, and when they walk over peas none of them stir,
but girls trip and skip, and drag their feet, and the peas roll
about.' The king was well pleased with the counsel, and caused the
peas to be strewn.
There was, however, a servant of the king's who favoured the huntsmen,
and when he heard that they were going to be put to this test he went
to them and repeated everything, and said: 'The lion wants to make the
king believe that you are girls.' Then the king's daughter thanked
him, and said to her maidens: 'Show some strength, and step firmly on
the peas.' So next morning when the king had the twelve huntsmen
called before him, and they came into the ante-chamber where the peas
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather: change the drift of their talk, but Bartley
found it pleasant to continue it.
"What a warm, soft spring evening that
was," he went on, as they sat down in the
study with the coffee on a little table between
them; "and the sky, over the bridges, was just
the color of the lilacs. We walked on down
by the river, didn't we?"
Hilda laughed and looked at him questioningly.
He saw a gleam in her eyes that he remembered
even better than the episode he was recalling.
Alexander's Bridge |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft: unwilling to impart her design; and Maria, glad to have obtained
the main point, thought it best to leave her to the workings of
her own mind; convinced that she had the power of interesting her
still more in favour of herself and child,
by a simple recital of facts.
In the evening, Jemima informed the impatient mother, that on
the morrow she should hasten to town before the family hour of
rising, and received all the information necessary, as a clue to
her search. The "Good night!" Maria uttered was peculiarly solemn
and affectionate. Glad expectation sparkled in her eye; and, for
the first time since her detention, she pronounced the name of her
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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 Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: lookout under her longlashed, roguish eyelids; and the two young
women discussed the subject of their lovers' return in that
elusive, elliptical way common to their sex.
No doubt each of these young women had conjectured as to the
manner of that homecoming and the meeting that would accompany
it; but it is safe to say that neither of them guessed in her
day-dreams how it actually was to occur.
Nora had been eager to see something of the round-up, and as she
was no horsewoman her mistress took her out one day in her motor.
The drive had been that day on Bronco Mesa, and had finished in
the natural corral made by Bear Canon, fenced with a cordon of
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