| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: of thing about her day after day, and never wonder why some
women, who don't seem to have any more right to it, have it
all tumbled into their laps, while others are writing dinner
invitations, and straightening out accounts, and copying
visiting lists, and finishing golf-stockings, and matching
ribbons, and seeing that the dogs get their sulphur? One
looks in one's glass, after all!"
She launched the closing words at him on a cry that lifted
them above the petulance of vanity; but his sense of her
words was lost in the surprise of her face. Under the
flying clouds of her excitement it was no longer a shallow
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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 Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: that of the magnified rind of an orange. A sabot filled with salt, a
frying-pan, and a large kettle hung inside the chimney. The farther
end of the room was completely filled by a four-post bedstead, with a
scalloped valance for decoration. The walls were black; there was an
opening to admit the light above the worm-eaten door; and here and
there were a few stools consisting of rough blocks of beech-wood, each
set upon three wooden legs; a hutch for bread, a large wooden dipper,
a bucket and some earthen milk-pans, a spinning-wheel on the top of
the bread-hutch, and a few wicker mats for draining cheeses. Such were
the ornaments and household furniture of the wretched dwelling.
The officer, who had been absorbed in flicking his riding-whip against
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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 Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: the bluish vapor that slid across the pillars, lending to them an
indescribable charm. Then some graceful women's forms began to stir on
the friezes. The cherubs who upheld the heavy columns shook out their
wings. I felt myself uplifted by some divine power that steeped me in
infinite joy, in a sweet and languid rapture. I would have given my
life, I think, to have prolonged these phantasmagoria for a little,
but suddenly a shrill voice clamored in my ears:
"Awake and follow me!"
A withered woman took my hand in hers; its icy coldness crept through
every nerve. The bones of her face showed plainly through the sallow,
almost olive-tinted wrinkles of the skin. The shrunken, ice-cold old
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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 Rinkitink In Oz by L. Frank Baum: It is evident that had the cunning Queen known that
Inga had lost all his magic, she would not have devoted
so much time to the simple matter of capturing him, but
like all others she was impressed by the marvelous
exhibition of power he had shown in capturing Regos,
and had no reason to believe the boy was less powerful
now.
One morning Queen Cor boldly entered a boat, and,
taking four men with her as an escort and bodyguard,
was rowed across the narrow channel to Regos. Prince
Inga was sitting in the palace playing checkers with
Rinkitink In Oz |
