| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: encircling the rock to the rear and at its top found Desiree.
A projecting bit of rock gave us some protection from the
spears that were being hurled at us from below, but they came
uncomfortably close, and black forms began to appear in the lane
through which we had come.
Harry shouted something which I didn't hear, and, taking
Desiree in his arms, sprang from the rock to another ledge some ten
feet below.
I followed. At the bottom he stumbled and fell, but I helped
him to his feet and then turned barely in time to beat back three
or four of the Incas who had tumbled down almost on our very heads.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: government.
As for the regeneration of Turkey, it is a question whether the
regeneration of any nation which has sunk, not into mere valiant
savagery, but into effete and profligate luxury, is possible. Still
more is it a question whether a regeneration can be effected, not by the
rise of a new spiritual idea (as in the case of the Koreish), but simply
by more perfect material appliances, and commercial prudence. History
gives no instance, it seems to me, of either case; and if our attempt to
regenerate Greece by freeing it has been an utter failure, much more, it
seems to me, would any such attempt fail in the case of the Turkish
race. For what can be done with a people which has lost the one great
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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 Whirligigs by O. Henry: In the cabin far up on Blackjack's shoulder, in the wildest
part of these retreats, this odd couple had lived for twenty
years. They had neither dog nor children to mitigate
the heavy silence of the hills. Pike Garvey was little
known in the settlements, but all who had dealt with him
pronounced him "crazy as a loon." He acknowledged
no occupation save that of a squirrel hunter, but he
"moonshined" occasionally by way of diversion. Once
the "revenues" had dragged him from his lair, fighting
silently and desperately like a terrier, and he had been
sent to state's prison for two years. Released, he popped
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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 Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: know Dora Harris. She, I believe, held no one else upon the same
terms of intimacy, though she found women, of course, with whom she
fluttered and embraced; and while there were, naturally, men with
whom I exchanged the time o'day in terms more or less cordial, I am
certain that I kept all my closest thoughts for her. It is
necessary again to know Simla to understand how our friendship was
gilded by the consideration that it was on both sides perfectly
spontaneous. Social life in the poor little place is almost a pure
farce with the number of its dictated, prompted intimacies, not
controlled by general laws of expediency as at home, but each on its
own basis of hope and expectancy, broadly and ludicrously obvious as
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