| 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: and get the net ready; he 's coming in towards the boat now."
Beekman broke three matches before he made the lantern burn; and
when he held it up over the gunwale, there was the trout sure
enough, gleaming ghostly pale in the dark water, close to the boat,
and quite tired out. He slipped the net over the fish and drew it
in,--a monster.
"I 'll carry that trout, if you please," said Cornelia, as they
stepped out of the boat; and she walked into the camp, on the last
stroke of midnight, with the fish in her hand, and quietly asked for
the steelyard.
Eight pounds and fourteen ounces,--that was the weight. Everybody
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: Guzman could not but answer; and without revealing any very
important commercial secrets, gave his host and his host's daughter
a very amusing evening.
Now little Eros, though spirits like Frank Leigh's may choose to
call him (as, perhaps, he really is to them) the eldest of the
gods, and the son of Jove and Venus, yet is reported by other
equally good authorities, as Burton has set forth in his "Anatomy
of Melancholy," to be after all only the child of idleness and
fulness of bread. To which scandalous calumny the thoughts of Don
Guzman's heart gave at least a certain color; for he being idle (as
captives needs must be), and also full of bread (for Sir Richard
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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 Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: men enough; yea rather, thou hast exhausted thine own infinitude, and
hast no more to teach them." Surely such a temper is to be fought
against, prayed against, both in ourselves, and in the generation in
which we live. Surely there is no reason why such a temper should
overtake old age. There may be reason enough, "in the nature of
things." For that which is of nature is born only to decay and die.
But in man there is more than dying nature; there is spirit, and a
capability of spiritual and everlasting life, which renews its youth
like the eagle's, and goes on from strength to strength, and which, if
it have its autumns and its winters, has no less its ever-recurring
springs and summers; if it has its Sabbaths, finds in them only rest and
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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 Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: body? The same phenomenon which we notice around fishes in the water
is also about objects which float in air. See how these outlines
spring forth from the background. Do you not feel that you could pass
your hand behind those shoulders? For seven years have I studied these
effects of light coupled with form. That hair,--is it not bathed in
light? Why, she breathes! That bosom,--see! Ah! who would not worship
it on bended knee? The flesh palpitates! Wait, she is about to rise;
wait!"
"Can you see anything?" whispered Poussin to Porbus.
"Nothing. Can you?"
"No."
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