| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: bank, pushing through a thicket of alders, and coming out suddenly,
face to face with a beautiful, strange brook. It reminds you, of
course, of some old friend. It is a little like the Beaverkill, or
the Ausable, or the Gale River. And yet it is different. Every
stream has its own character and disposition. Your new acquaintance
invites you to a day of discoveries. If the water is high, you will
follow it down, and have easy fishing. If the water is low, you
will go upstream, and fish "fine and far-off." Every turn in the
avenue which the little river has made for you opens up a new view,--
a rocky gorge where the deep pools are divided by white-footed
falls; a lofty forest where the shadows are deep and the trees arch
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: developments of the general UGLIFYING of Europe. For what must
these clumsy attempts of feminine scientificality and self-
exposure bring to light! Woman has so much cause for shame; in
woman there is so much pedantry, superficiality,
schoolmasterliness, petty presumption, unbridledness, and
indiscretion concealed--study only woman's behaviour towards
children!--which has really been best restrained and dominated
hitherto by the FEAR of man. Alas, if ever the "eternally tedious
in woman"--she has plenty of it!--is allowed to venture forth! if
she begins radically and on principle to unlearn her wisdom and
art-of charming, of playing, of frightening away sorrow, of
Beyond Good and Evil |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: thought had been, as she signed the receipt: "Now I can live with my
Pierrette and marry her to that good Brigaut, who will make a fortune
with my money."
Therefore the moment she had read the fatal letters she made instant
preparations to start for Provins. She left Nantes that night by the
mail; for some one had explained to her its celerity. In Paris she
took the diligence for Troyes, which passes through Provins, and by
half-past eleven at night she reached Frappier's, where Brigaut,
shocked at her despairing looks, told her of Pierrette's state and
promised to bring the poor girl to her instantly. His words so
terrified the grandmother that she could not control her impatience
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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 Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: bent as he climbed in, wedging his mature bulk between their slim
shapes. The gelding looked round the shaft at them. "Protestin', are
you?" he said to it. "These light-weight stoodents spile you!" So the
gelding went on, expressing, however, by every line of its body, a sense
of outraged justice. The boys related their difficult search, and
learned that any mention of the name of Diggs would have brought them
straight. "Bill Higgs of the Bird-in-Hand was my father, and my
grandf'ther, and his father; and has been me sence I come back from the
war and took the business in '65. I'm not commonly to be met out this
late. About fifteen minutes earlier is my time for gettin' back, unless
I'm plannin' for a jamboree. But to-night I got to settin' and watchin'
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